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They were Prepared 06

HOLLAND

Amersfoort

AT their journey's end the hospital, kitchen  and canteen units found themselves in a  concentration camp, at Amersfoort. When the  German authorities heard rumours of surrender  they had cleared out of the place, and by the  time the teams arrived the prisoners who were  strong enough had left too, but the prison  hospital was still overcrowded with patients in  the last stages of emaciation.  The long army huts contained nothing but  groups of six bunks in three tiers, the top tier  within a foot of the roof, all left with blankets  tousled just as the prisoners had last slept in  them. A foetid indescribable smell pervaded  the place. The teams' first job was to clean and  disinfect it as much and as rapidly as possible.  One of the main activities of Civil Affairs at  this time was to set up assembly centres to deal  with the needs of the flood of starving, infested  people whom they expected would be brought  in by the army or would find their way on foot  from forced labour or from concentration camps.  This place was to form such an assembly  centre: the kitchen and canteen's job was to  feed incomers, and the hospital's job to prepare  medical inspection rooms, a delousing unit, and  to have beds ready for any people who might  be too ill to travel further. The vast numbers of  people expected did not materialise, but the  teams found plenty of work to be done in caring  for the sick, the needy and the starving in the  neighbourhood.

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