Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 21/07/1942

On 21 July, 1942 a further mass transport left Westerbork transit camp for Auschwitz-Birkenau. Jews in Amsterdam who had received a call-up notice for the deportation were summoned to register at Adama van Scheltemaplein, the seat of the Zentralstelle in Amsterdam. Here they would also receive information on the departure of the train. Not everyone who had received a call-up notice obeyed it. Like Jacob de Hond, who gave a written testimony to the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) in January 1947: "When I received a summons to register, I did not go and walked around as usual. This did not last very long because I was caught during a raid in Amsterdam and was taken to the Amsterdam Schouwburg where I stayed for one day. From the Schouwburg I went on a transport to Westerbork [...]." The Hollandse (Joodse) Schouwburg, a former theater that served as an assembly point during the deportations from the Netherlands. Head of the Zentralstelle Ferdinand Hugo aus der Fünten was in charge of the site. After a certain time, the deportees were taken from the Schouwburg to the Central Station, from where they would depart for Westerbork transit camp....