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Hiking trails & Routes
Netherlands
Drenthe
Borger-Odoorn

Valtherbos Hiding Place – Dolmen D35 loop from Valtherbos

Routes
Hiking trails & Routes
Netherlands
Drenthe
Borger-Odoorn

Valtherbos Hiding Place – Dolmen D35 loop from Valtherbos

Easy

4.5

(6)

16

hikers

Valtherbos Hiding Place – Dolmen D35 loop from Valtherbos

01:20

5.30km

10m

Hiking

Easy hike. Great for any fitness level. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

Last updated: June 27, 2026

Waypoints

A

Start point

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1

719 m

Hünenweg / Hondsrugpad

Highlight • Trail

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

Translated by Google •

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2

1.16 km

Walking junction 95

Highlight • Trail

Part of the walking network Drenthe. Source: drenthe.nl/fietsen-wandelen/wandelen/wandelnetwerk

Translated by Google •

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3

1.88 km

Valtherbos Hiding Place

Highlight • Historical Site

The cave was built by Bertus Zefat to provide a hiding place for Jews. He and other villagers provided them with food for years. All 20 people survived World War II because of him. Bertus Zefat was shot by the SS in 1944, but he did not reveal his hiding place.

Translated by Google •

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4

2.29 km

Dolmen D35

Highlight • Historical Site

This dolmen was built more than 5,000 years ago by people of the Funnel Beaker culture and is 8.5 meters long and 3.2 meters wide.

In 1871, the province of Drenthe bought the dolmen from the boermarke (medieval collective of larger farmers) of Valthe.

Translated by Google •

Tip by

5

3.13 km

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.

Translated by Google •

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6

3.16 km

Hiding Place 2 (Valtherbos)

Highlight • Historical Site

During the Second World War, the forest in Drenthe was regularly used to set up hiding places. Many primitive hiding places, consisting of a dug hole with, for example, a cover of wood and plants, have since been swallowed up by nature. Well-known is the hiding place in the Valtherbos near Valthe, where a number of Jewish people in hiding managed to survive the war. A small monument was placed here in the 1980s.
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 metres 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 tell 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 place 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.

Translated by Google •

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7

4.07 km

Onderduikershol Valtherbos

Highlight • Historical Site

8

4.94 km

Beautiful Open Forest

Highlight • Forest

Nothing grows well under the beech trees.

Translated by Google •

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B

5.30 km

End point

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Way Types & Surfaces

Way Types

3.77 km

1.40 km

Surfaces

4.17 km

343 m

341 m

318 m

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Elevation

Elevation

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Weather

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Saturday 4 July

21°C

14°C

69 %

Additional weather tips

Max wind speed: 20.0 km/h

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