Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 14/08/1942

The transport of August 14 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 for the transport were distributed both in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In Amsterdam raids were organized after only a small number of Jews had obeyed the summons for labour service. In response, the SD in The Hague gave orders to the Ordungspolizei to carry out raids in Amsterdam on August 6 and 9. The Ordnungspolizei, under the supervision of Robert Wieprecht, was aided by the Amsterdam Police Battalion. Ferdinand Aus der Fuenten, head of the Zentralstelle was in charge. In the raid of August 6 between 1,600 and 2,200 Jews were taken off the street or from their homes. Some of them were taken to the assembly point, a former theater in Amsterdam De Hollandse Schouwburg, while others were brought to the courtyard of the Zentralstelle where they had to spend the night. In the raid of August 9 hundreds of Jews were arrested in Beethovenstraat and Rubensstraat, the wealthy area of Amsterdam. The majority of those arrested were released. However, approximately 600 Jews were deported from Amsterdam Central Station to the Hooghalen train station from where they had to walk 5km to Westerbork. Ies Spetter, who worked for the Jewish Council administrating the transports in Westerbork, remembers the day when the arrestees of the raid of August 6 arrived at the Westerbork camp: ‘The miserable march of elderly, sick, children, some still in their pajamas, made it clear to me and to others, that this was not about labour, but about the often promised “Ausrottung”.’ It is unknown how many and for how long the deportees stayed in Westerbork. The evening before a transport would leave a list was read out consisting of the names of the deportees. Many testimonies of survivors describe the camp prisoners’ fear of being on the list. According to a manifest compiled by the Lippmann and Rosenthal Bank, the transport of August 14 consisted of 505 Jews, 238 male and 267 female, among them families with children. The record includes 83 children under the age of 12. The youngest deportee was a one year old girl (Edith Peppelsdorf) and the oldest was 60 (Jozef de Jong). 9 are listed as ‘voluntary’ and 3 were added later. The deportees came mainly from Rotterdam and from the Jewish quarters of Amsterdam....