Trails&Traces is a performance about the visible and invisible marks left behind by the history of Camp Westerbork. They are traces in the landscape, in personal memories, and in the stories of those who were forced to live there. During the Second World War, the transit camp on the heathland of Drenthe became the departure point for more than 107,000 Jews, Sinti, and Roma who were deported to extermination camps in the East. Only 5,000 of them ever returned.

In 2025, the Preparatory Programme of Garage TDI created Behind the Façade on the former camp grounds. With Trails&Traces, in 2026, we widen our focus to the area beyond the camp itself. A narrow-gauge railway which runs past the water treatment plant, the crematorium, and the camp farm, all the way to the Oranjekanaal. 

In this new performance, the young actors lead their audience along that historical route. They give voice to forgotten stories of giving care and bearing cares. Stories not only from within the barbed-wire perimeter, but also from the world outside it.

Created in collaboration with the Camp Westerbork Memorial Centre and within the context of Theatre of Remembrance, Trails&Traces reveals how the past continues to echo in the present.

It brings the traces of history back into view and carries them forward through a new generation.

Directors: Mika But, Maris de Jong

Actors: Feline van de Belt, Belle van Brakel, Kasper Dijkstra, Jaro Eskes, Marit Frankema, Yuna Huntjens, Nova Nijeboer, Annafloor Tiggelaar, Lene Nuus, Sven van der Neut, Marit Turkstra, Milena Koetschruiter

Production: Rick Naaijer

Photographer: DAYS Film & Photography