Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 27/07/1942

In a report to the Foreign Ministry on July 31, 1942, Otto Benne wrote about the rumours circulating among the Jews regarding the fate of those who had been sent away. The Jews, he noted, thought that the able-bodied had been sent first to prepare the housing that their fellow Jews in the East would need. This report corresponds to the testimonies of two survivors of the transport from July 27—Elias Pais (b. 1904) and Jacques Peeper (b. 1914)—who testified in April and May, 1947. Pais testified that he had received a notice ordering him to report to the Central Office for Jewish Emigration on Adama van Scheltemaplein in southern Amsterdam together with his wife and children. On Friday, July 24, 1942, the Jews were led from this location to the Dutch theater (Hollandsche Schouwburg) in the center of town which served as an assembly point from July 20 onward. After spending the night in the theater building, the Jews were taken by tram, to the city’s central railroad station under German police supervision. In the evening they set out for Hooghalen by train. From there they were marched some 5 kilometers to the Westerbork camp. The train belonged to the Dutch railroad company (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) and employees of the Dutch public transport system, who had been on strike in February 1941, worked overtime during the deportations in the summer of 1942 and were rewarded. In Westerbork, employees of the LIRO-Bank dispossessed the Jews of their remaining assets. In his testimony, Jacques Peeper recalls that they were informed 48 hours after arriving that they were to be included in the next transport which was scheduled to leave the following day. Most returned to the station in Hooghalen on foot, while some travelled in a tractor-drawn or horse-drawn cart (boerenwagen)....