Valthe | village

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Valthe is a rounded village situated around a so-called "brink". This brink is surrounded by Saxonic farms in "old-Valthe". Prominent is the fastness of the green brink at the "Schoolstraat". after the First World War the village became larger because of the winning of peat in the so-called "Valther venen". The surroudings of the village are dominated by agriculteral field end small patches of woods.

Between 1904 and 1945 the village had a railway station, Valthe Station, which was part of the railway Emmen-Gasselternijveen of the North-Easter Local Railway Company. This Railway company was established in order to transport peat to the big cities in the west of Holland. The station is still in the same shape as it was built in the Jugendstil-design of Eduard Cuypers. The name of the village is still readable in a table of tiles over the entrance.

Valthe is the smallest of the three "sandvalliges" in the "kerspel" Oderen. The other villages are Exloo and Odoorn.

Near the village was, until the 17th century, the so-called "Valtherschans", which was part of the defensive line of the Netherlands against Bommen Berend, de bishop of Münster(Germany). Between 1811 and 1835 Valthe was the seat of the local authority, which meant that the Counsil house was situated here and the Mayor had his residence here.

In the "Valtherbos", south of the village, is a cave where Jews were hided in the Second World War. The cave was never discouvered bij the German enemy, so on a sunny day in April at the end of the war these people were liberated . The farmer Albertus Zefat was the leader of a group who took care of the refugees. Zefat was excecuted just before the liberation due to betrayal.