Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Bergen Belsen, Camp, Germany on 31/07/1944

The Allied landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944, and the destruction of the Central Army Group by the Red Army over the summer had sent Nazi Germany into a tailspin. Even so, the Nazi authorities—including those in the Netherlands—persisted in their efforts to deport any remaining Jews. On July 31, 1944, two transports departed from Westerbork—one to Bergen-Belsen and one to Theresienstadt. It is presumed that they used the same train because their deportation manifests were filed next to each other in the SS Netherlands archives. In addition, it is known that previous transports of this type had been conjoined to save on the use of trains, thus following the guidelines that the Department for Jewish Affairs of the RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt—Reich Main Security Office) had sent to all Gestapo headquarters in the Reich on February 21, 1943. According to these instructions, among other provisions, small transports (fewer than 400 people) would be deported in special cars coupled to regular trains. There is no testimony, however, that such trains were actually used in this deportation, particularly given that the two transports out of Westerbork carried 391 passengers in all—178 to Bergen-Belsen and 213 to Theresienstadt. The train evidently consisted of passenger as well as freight cars. On August 4, 1944, the commander of Westerbork, Konrad Gemmeker, forwarded the manifests of the two transports to the Higher SS- and Police-leader (HSSPF, Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer) in the Netherlands, Hanns Albin Rauter. On August 9, Rauter sent five lists to Bergen-Belsen headquarters comprising the names of Jews who had been deported to Bergen-Belsen, including 47 children. The deportees fell into several categories: 23 Jews who held immigration visas for Palestine under British mandate; 131 (on two separate lists) who had connections with hostile countries and could be used as hostages or instruments of political or economic pressure; 8 associated with the diamond industry along with their families; and 17 who, in greater part, held foreign passports, 11 of whom from South America. In a letter to Karl Rahm, commander of Theresienstadt, dated August 8, 1944, concerning those aboard the transport, Slotke stated that if holders of South American passports—e.g., of Honduras, Ecuador, Paraguay, etc.—were to reach Theresienstadt, they should not be treated as foreign passport holders because their documents were forged....