Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 10/08/1942

The transport of August 10 1942 was organized by the department for Jewish affairs of the RSHA in the Netherlands. Wilhelm Zoepf was head of this department from February 1942 until the end of the deportations from The Netherlands. However, Erich Rajakowitsch replaced Zoepf for the month of August that year and so was in charge of this transport. Announcements calling for labour service in Germany were distributed. Because only a small number responded to the call, raids were organized. On August 6 1942 the SD in The Hague gave orders to the Ordungspolizei (Order Police) to carry out a raid in Amsterdam. The Ordnungspolizei, under supervision of Robert Wieprecht, was aided by the Amsterdam Police Battalion. Ferdinand Aus der Fuenten, head of the Zentralstelle was in charge. In this raid, which started in the early morning, between 1,600 and 2,200 Jews were taken off the street or from their homes. Some of them were taken to the Hollandse Schouwburg, while others were brought to the courtyard of the Zentralstelle where they had to spend the night. Six hundred of them were deported from Amsterdam Central Station to Westerbork. David and Esther van Praag wrote about the transport from Amsterdam to Westerbork in their last letter to their family sent from Westerbork on August 9 1942: “We left Friday night [August 7, 1942] at 12:00 by tram to the Central Station, and arrived at around 3:00 in Hooghalen. We slept well in the train, nice modern cars, spacious seats. Also Es [Esther] managed to keep well. Her medical attest has not been accepted, neither my religious function has not given us exemption from the transport. Now it is too late for this.” David van Praag also writes about the transport that was set to depart the next day, thankful that it would be “the first transport to take a fairly big Seifer Tora.” This last letter, in which David and Esther express their hopefulness, illustrates that the deportees had no idea what was awaiting them....