Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 21/08/1942

On Friday 21 August 1942 the twelfth transport of the first phase of the mass deportation of the Jews from the Netherlands left from the Westerbork transit camp to Auschwitz. Jews from Amsterdam received a call up to report at the Joodsche Schouwburg in the Plantage Middelaan, a busy street in a residential area where many non-Jews lived as well. The Schouwburg doubled as the assembly point prior to deportations and as a prison camp for more prolonged detentions. Until the end of July 1942 the Jews from Amsterdam had to report at the Central Station or at the Adama van Scheltemaplein nr.1, formerly a high school, where the Zentralstelle (the Central Office) was housed. In July and August 1942 the main method of calling up people was by written, often home-delivered notification as well as by means of raids on July 14, August 6 and August 9. These notifications informed the recipient of his/her participation in a “polizeiliche Arbeitseinsatz” (work assignment; a Nazi euphemism for deportation) in Germany, for which they had to pass a medical examination at the Westerbork transit camp and had to present themselves at the local assembly point at a certain date and hour with their belongings packed in backpacks or duffel bags....