Lobby for the Camp Westerbork Memorial Center

Camp Westerbork is the place from where 107,000 Jews, Sinti and Roma were deported to the extermination camps in the East during World War II. Less well known is that Camp Westerbork was also the temporary – but ultimately twenty-year – home of a large group of Moluccans who had served in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army from 1951 until the early 1970s. 

Unfortunately, the continued existence of the Westerbork Remembrance Center is under pressure. For years, the center has only been marginally financed and is running on its reserves – which have now been exhausted. In addition, the Remembrance Center is in urgent need of renovation, for which a considerable amount of money is needed. 

“And then a lady came with the announcement that she was going to hand over a petition and everything changed.” About how a small action suddenly has big consequences.   

Issue making | Advisors involved: Lex Luton and Sybrig van Keep
Services provided: strategy, public affairs, media approach 

Issuemakers developed a public affairs strategy to increase the political and public visibility of this situation. The kick-off of this strategy was the presentation of a petition to the House of Representatives Committee of VWS, with director Bertien Minco sounding the alarm. Thanks to the powerful communication of the urgency and the clever response to political and social developments, we managed to mobilize a large number of committee members and party chairmen to be present at the presentation. 

Structural financing

The result: the action led to more than 200 news articles about Camp Westerbork, including at the NOS. The emergency call not only came onto the political agenda, but also featured prominently in the media. Almost immediately after the handover, a motion was passed across the chamber to provide the Remembrance Centre with structural financial support, an amount that was later even increased. 

Renovation of the Remembrance Center

In the next phase, the focus shifted to the renovation plans of the Remembrance Centre, with the spring memorandum as an important benchmark. We invited party leaders for a working visit, during which the plans would also be presented. Prime Minister Dick Schoof has already paid a working visit to the Remembrance Centre. His presence underlined the national importance of the institution and received ample media attention. Dilan Yesilgöz and Frans Timmermans have also promised to come on a working visit soon. 

Spring Memorandum

State Secretary Karremans has received the plans for the renovation of Westerbork. We hoped that the financing of these plans would be discussed during the discussion of the Spring Memorandum so that we would have certainty about the financing this calendar year. We are extremely happy with the news that Camp Westerbork will receive 15 million this year for the first phase of the renovation. This is an important major step towards the preservation of this memorial centre.  

The work we did for the Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork is a powerful example of what Issuemakers stands for: putting important social issues on the agenda at the right time, in order to achieve political, public and media impact. For our historians at the agency, Lex and Sybrig, this is not only a wonderful assignment to work on and achieve results, but also very valuable to contribute to the preservation of tangible memories of a recent past that we should never forget.