Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Bergen Belsen, Camp, Germany on 14/09/1943

The first transport of Jewish deportees that set out from the Netherlands on September 14, 1943 for Bergen Belsen, had first been destined for Theresienstadt. Indeed, most of those aboard were sent from Bergen-Belsen to Theresienstadt about five months later. The reasons for the change of destination, however, are unclear. The possibility of deporting Jews from the Netherlands to Theresienstadt is first mentioned on October 5, 1942: Wilhelm Zöpf, head of Department for Jewish Affairs (IVb4) in the Netherlands, broached it following a consultation with Adolf Eichmann, Head of the Department for Jewish Affairs and Evacuation (Department IV B4), of the RSHA and the deportation of Jews whom the authorities considered privileged for various reasons began in April 1943. The preparations for this transport began in August 1943. On August 6, Alfons Werner, an officer from the Department for Jewish Affairs in The Hague, advised Franz Now[v]ak, superintendent of transport at Eichmann’s department, that a group of some 200 Jews was ready to leave Westerbork for Theresienstadt. Werner wanted to know whether “the Theresienstadt camp could still receive [these Jews] on an exceptional basis” or whether they should be sent to Bergen-Belsen. On August 19, in a letter to Reich Commissioner Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Harster attached a list of people whom, he hoped, Inquart would approve for transport to Theresienstadt. Such a request was unusual at the time and may have had something to do with the deportees’ status. As Harster noted, some had earned decorations of valor in World War I, others had been wounded in that conflict, others had “contributed to Germany” in one manner or another, and a few had families that were already in Theresienstadt. A study of the various deportation lists yields information about what some of these Jews had done. Julius Magnus, for example, was an attorney who, among other things, had represented Kaiser Wilhelm II. In contrast, one of the women in this transport was a former member of the NSB (the Dutch Nazi Party, in which 150 Jews had enlisted). On September 14, 1943, a train consisting of freight cars left Westerbork with two separate groups of passengers aboard: one destined for Bergen-Belsen, comprising 305 Jews, and another bound for Auschwitz with 1,005 Jews. The minutes of a meeting held by the Joodse Raad in Amsterdam on September 21, report that “Last Tuesday, a transport of approximately 1,000 persons departed from Westerbork for Poland and a transport of 300 persons was sent to Theresienstadt.” The minutes also state that the 300 deportees had been selected from a list of 600 candidates. By implication, even a week after the deportation, the Jews in Amsterdam did not realize that the deportees had reached Bergen-Belsen....