The best hikes from bus stations in Valtherbos

Great hiking trail from Osnabrück to Groningen - or the other way around 😇

Yippie

Very interesting history. At the hiding place you will find several information boards.

From the autumn of 1942, Albertus Zefat, the owner of a chicken farm in Valthe, hid 16 Jewish people in hiding in the chicken coop behind his house. Because this was noticed, a hole of 6 x 3 meters was dug in the hard forest soil in the Valtherbos for the people in hiding in the autumn of 1942. In 1943, the hole – covered with trunks, branches and leaves – was discovered by accident, but this had no consequences. The hole was moved to its current location. Albertus Zefat himself was shot dead in July 1944 when he refused to say where the Jews were. The people in hiding were cared for by a group of people from the village and stayed there until 11 April 1945. Ab van Dien, one of the people in hiding, wrote his memories of the time in the hiding hole in his book ‘De Opgejaagden’. Fourteen Jewish people in hiding survived the occupation, but a number of their helpers in the village did not. At the liberation, a total of about 20 people emerged. These were Jews and other people in hiding. The hiding place was restored in the context of 75 years of freedom in the spring of 2020.

If you walk the red or yellow route, you will pass the hiding place in the Valtherbos. A lot of information about the monument is provided here. The hiding place was renovated in March 2020. The path from the cycle path to the monument has been widened and paved with wood chips. Large, sturdy benches have been placed that invite you to stay longer and the old display case has been replaced by a plaque that gives a beautiful view of the location. The idea arose in the early eighties to reconstruct the hiding place and to place a memorial stone. Since no permit was granted for the reconstruction, only a memorial stone was chosen. Stichting Welzijnswerk started publishing the booklet 'De Opgejaagden' in 1982. This booklet was written by Ab van Dien, one of the people in hiding.

Pingo ruins are the remains of a pingo when the ice in the subsurface melts. A ring-shaped crater is then created that is filled with meltwater. This lake can then be filled again with organic material in a warmer period as a result of plant growth. See also: https://www.geologievannederland.nl/landschap/landschapsvormen/pingoruine

Along the yellow route through the Valtherbos you pass a plaque with a tree next to it in which the letter A is carved. This plaque was unveiled in May 2013 by the then 93-year-old Mr. Aaltjo Oldenburger. He was one of the aid workers who were closely involved in a second hiding place (the first hiding place is the well-known hiding place, elsewhere in the forest, which has been restored). Where you are standing now must have been the second hiding place. This was built because people thought that the first hiding place would be discovered. The second hiding place is no longer intact and therefore cannot be found. Oldenburger carved an A into the tree with a pair of scissors so that he could easily find the hiding place. Because Oldenburger was a textile worker at the time, he always carried the scissors with him. Thanks to his efforts, 16 Jewish people in hiding survived the war. The text on the plaque is by the Jewish writer and poet Otto Weiss.

North of Emmen lies the Valtherbos, no less than 448 ha in size, where you can walk along winding paths, between various types of coniferous and deciduous trees. Are you coming just before or just after sunset? Then it is even quieter here, the colours are even more beautiful and there is a good chance that you will spot deer or wild boar. The Valtherbos is also home to Europe's smallest bird, the goldcrest. From beak to tail tip only 8.5 cm in size. Because of their size, but also because they like to stay in the tops of coniferous trees, you do not spot them easily. Only by their song do you know that they are there. Always beautiful is the drumming of the great spotted woodpecker or the black woodpecker that you regularly hear here. A woodpecker does this drumming for various reasons; to mark out a territory, to make it known that a partner is being sought, or to find food. With its drumming it chases insects away which, startled by the vibrations in the bark, emerge. An easy prey for the lightning-fast woodpecker. The Valtherbos was created in the 1920s, but contains traces from a much more distant past. Here you will find no fewer than four dolmens, ancient burial mounds and a pingo ruin. The hiding place you encounter along the way tells the impressive story of 16 Jewish Emmen residents who managed to survive the Second World War by hiding here.