Delegation location 9 - Vierhouten
We go up north from Apeldoorn once again and find ourselves not very far away from Staverden in yet another small location: Vierhouten, a little and pretty quiet town in the woods. The name literally translates to something like 'four woods', most likely this name came into existence because of the four forests surrounding it.
It's a bit of a touristic place, since it's located in the forests and next to what's apparently called heathland in English. For a very long time, Vierhouten was a typical farmer's village, which lasted until somewhere in the mid-20th century. A lot of the centuries old farms disappeared, were rebuilt or burned down - basically only one, built before 1820 and possibly already in 1650, is still intact, although not really operating as a farm anymore, but as a holiday house instead.
De Jonge Stee, the main former farm still in existence in Vierhouten
There is one main thing around Vierhouten and that has to do with relatively recent history: a few kilometers outside of town, there is the 'Hidden Village'. During the Second World War, a relatively large amount of people were hidden from the German occupiers there, including Jewish people, resistance fighters and a British pilot who was shot down not far away and escaped being caught.
Entrance to one of the rebuilt living quarters in the Hidden Village
The Hidden Village, sadly, has a tragic ending, but in between all the fun stuff, I do think it's an important story to tell for history's sake: one day a young boy was getting some water, but when crossing a small opening in between the trees, a German soldier spotted him. He got some reinforcements and the hidden village was hidden no more. A total of 78 people managed to escape, but eight were caught and all of them were executed basically immediately - apart from one elderly lady, who died due to sickness. Part of the village has been rebuilt, so one can go there and enter the (rebuilt) living quarters while walking around in the forest.
Inside the forest, next to one of the forest roads, a small monument has been made for the Hidden Village inhabitants who were caught and executed in October 1944, six of them at roughly this location
To close out Vierhouten, we would like to point out there is of course not just tragedy there - otherwise we wouldn't place anyone in the town. There's a hotel which was often used by the royal family when going on their hunting vacations - not to worry, they're not doing that anymore. The main positive thing about Vierhouten is it's market in the autumn, when the new season starts for all kinds of meat - deer, boar and so on. They are majestic animals indeed, but if numbers are not controlled to some extent, the entire ecosystem is endangered, especially the boar can be...destructive.
The end of summer and the beginning of autumn is an excellent time in Vierhouten!
Delegations in Vierhouten
Denmark
Mexico
Israel