Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende criticized his country's collaboration with its Nazi occupiers during World War II, shortly before commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the country's main deportation camp.

The prime minister spoke about the issue at an international conference on the Jewish community in a changing society organized by CIDI, the Center for Information and Documentation in Israel, said Eran Nagan, CIDI spokesman.

Balkenende said government authorities at the time "worked on the horrible process whereby Jews were stripped of their rights," Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported.

Thousands of camp survivors, soldiers and students gathered for a solemn ceremony at Westerbork camp, in the eastern Dutch countryside, where Jews and others considered enemies of the Nazi regime were detained before being deported to death camps in Poland and Germany.

Many of those present Tuesday laid flowers at the camp's memorial: a short length of railroad tracks with one end twisted up skyward.

"It's a wonder that I exist," said Eveline Hertzberger, whose grandparents were interned at Westerbork.

She said she and other descendants of survivors were living proof that the Nazis had failed. "We're still here. The suffering wasn't for nothing. We bring honor to our history and our race."

More than 100,000 Dutch Jews – 70 percent of the country's Jewish community – were deported from the Netherlands after Germany occupied the country in May 1940, with the efficient help of Dutch authorities.

Westerbork was run with minimal guidance from the Nazis; Dutch policemen handled security and a council of internees determined who was selected for deportation.

Most Dutch victims of the Holocaust, including the German-born teenage diarist Anne Frank, were held temporarily at the camp, which was around 160 kilometers northeast of Amsterdam, and not far from the German border. It was destroyed after the war.

Deportees were sent to death camps in Germany and Poland and most died in gas chambers. Frank died in Germany of typhus.

Westerbork was liberated by Canadian troops 60 years ago Tuesday, and 876 prisoners were freed. Ted Sheppard, one of the first allied soldiers to arrive at the camp, said he remembered how quiet it was when he arrived.

Then people cautiously emerged and began laughing and celebrating, he told Dutch television.

One schoolgirl of Gypsy, or Roma, descent said at the ceremony that people should also remember the more than 200 Roma who were sent to their deaths from Westerbork, along with several dozen Dutch resistance fighters.

Fatima Islaami said Dutch media still denigrate Roma by only mentioning them in a negative light. "They were on the right side then, too," she said.