In October 1941, the Nazis decided that Jewish people who were unemployed would be sent to labour camps. Many of them had lost their jobs due to anti-Jewish measures. The Jewish Council was charged with selecting the men. A lot of people tried to avoid going, but they usually did not succeed.
The labour camps had been built in the 1930s. Most of these camps were located in the Dutch provinces of Groningen, Drenthe, and Overijssel. The government had set them up to have unemployed men make the barren soil suitable for agriculture. The labourers had to work the land and build roads. In 1941, they were replaced by unemployed Jews.
The first group of 905 Jews left for the camps on 10 January 1942. Because the ground was frozen stiff, at first, there was little they could do. The work was hard and conditions were poor. Later on, even Jews who still had jobs were made to work in the camps. By September 1942, more than 5,000 Jewish men had been sent to the labour camps.
