The moorland labor camps, Emslandlager ("Emsland camps") - as they were known - were for political opponents of the Third Reich, located outside of Börgermoor, now part of the commune Surwold, not far from Papenburg.
The son of Dutch actor and director Louis Gimberg, van Dreelen was fluent in several languages, he escaped the Emslandlager labor camp near Papenburg