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The camp was built as a refugee camp by the Dutch government, and taken over by the Nazis in 1942. It was used as a transit camp, bringing large number of Jews, Roma and Dutch resistance members together for deportation to the infamous concentration camps. 107,000 people (among them Anne Frank) were deported from Westerbork on 93 trains between 1942 and 1945. Only 5000 returned. After the war, the camp was used to hold Dutch Nazis who were awaiting trial, then as a military camp, and after that as a housing initiative for demobilised members of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army and their families. After the last families left in 1971, all of the camp buildings were removed. A commander's house is about the only original camp building that remains. To allow proper remembrance of this dramatic yet historic place, a museum was opened in 1983. Several partial reconstructions give a rough idea of the camp layout and monuments represent the magnitude of events that took place here.