The first camp commandant was SS-Untersturmführer SS Subaltern Karl Chmielewski. This SS Officer had already earned his badge of cruelty and disgrace at Gusen concentration camp. He was well known for the barbaric atrocities he had committed while serving at Gusen, a notorious Nazi camp annex of Mauthausen. Mauthausen ranked among the most brutal of the Nazi camps. In October 1943, accused of grand theft, he was replaced by a new commandant, SS-Hauptsturmführer - SS Captain Adam Grünewald. Grünewald was responsible for the infamous bunker drama. Because of this, he was replaced in February of 1944 by yet another SS officer, SS-Untersturmführer - SS Subaltern Hans Hüttig. Hüttig was responsible for at least 329 murders, victims who were executed at Vught between July and September of This happened just prior to the liberation of the camp by Allied forces.

Originally, Vught was divided into two sections. The first section, JDL - Judendurchgangslager - transit camp for Jews, was designed to house Jewish inmates before they were deported to Poland. These transfers were carried out in two stages. First they were moved from Vught to Westerbork. Next, they were sent from Westerbork to either the extermination camp of Auschwitz/Birkenau or Sobibor. Approximately twelve thousand Jews including two thousand children under the age of sixteen left Vught via Westerbork to extermination centers in Poland or, as in the case of two transports, these went directly to Poland. The transfer of Jewish prisoners to Westerbork hardly ever created panic. Although, because of separation from father or mother, or both, children often felt deserted and bewildered. Treatment in Vught had been barbaric. Many who were transferred thought that they would permanently stay in Westerbork. That in itself was a consolation of sorts. They did not realize that Westerbork was but a holding place and subsequent portal for deportation and ultimate extermination in either Birkenau or Sobibor. The second section of Vught served as Schutzhaftlager - security camp. This section received Dutch as well as Belgian political prisoners, both men and women. Unlike Westerbork and Ommen, the guards were exclusively drawn from the SS. Food was nearly non-existent. It basically consisted of warm water with some carrots or sauerkraut floating on the surface. The SS guards tortured the prisoners with incredible cruelty often beating them to death. Several prisoners were brutalized with a club wrapped with barbed wire. SS men often provoked their dogs to attack the prisoners. Several former inmates gave testimony how attacks by dogs had left them with horribly inflicted wounds, including wounds to the genitals. Hundreds of Dutch and Belgian prisoners were executed by firing squad in a place called De Ijzeren Man - The Iron Man. This place was located approximately half a mile outside camp perimeter.

This camp has been very famous for its cruelty and the hardness of the work.We can remember two tragic stories that happened in the camp

This story is about 75 women that have been putted in a very small and ugly room. Many of them were burned by the fresh paint,others died because they couldn’t breathe. It is an exemple of solidarity that there was among the prisioners: all of this women payed for a “crime” that only one did.

This story is more cruel then the others,because it is about children.In the camp,there were so many children,and tha commander hated this;so he decided that all of them had to deseappear.He told to the children’s parents that there were going in a better camp where they could study. But they were put in a train and sent to the death.