Transport from Rotterdam, Zuidholland, The Netherlands to Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands on 09/10/1942

On October 2 a large number of Jews had been arrested in the city of Rotterdam. They were mainly the wives and children of Jewish men who were already interned in labour camps elsewhere in the Netherlands. These camps were evacuated on October 2 and 3. Consequently, most of their wives and children were sent to the assembly site at Loods 24 in the Stieltjesstraat, which was located in a closed area at the Rotterdam port. It had previously been used for storing tobacco. Alongside the warehouse sat train tracks with a connection to the main Dutch railway network. On October 4 a train left from Loods 24 for Westerbork. On October 8 a second operation was organized in Rotterdam. That Thursday evening Jews from the age of 60 and above were taken from their homes. Police Officer M. De Blok was put in charge and carried out his task with great zeal. The Rotterdam police was assisted by members of the Politiebataljon (Police battalion) Amsterdam and they were divided into groups of 3. According to the daily reports issued by the Jewish Council in Amsterdam about 1,500 people were arrested and 500 of these were sent to Westerbork the next day, on October 9, via Loods 24. On Friday the arrests in Rotterdam continued. Survivors of the Westerbork-Auschwitz transport of 12 October, 1942 reported that old people from the Oude Lieden Gesticht (the Home for the Elderly) in Rotterdam were on the train to Auschwitz. Dr. Gabriel Italie, a Jew from The Hague who kept a detailed account of the events and anti-Jewish measures in his city and elsewhere in the Netherlands, remarked cynically in his diary on October 9:”Last night a big raid was carried out in Rotterdam. During this heroic attack against the Jews they succeeded to evacuate the home for the elderly with the help of a strong police force and police vans”....