Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 28/08/1942

The transport that left on Friday August 28 consisted of approximately 800 persons, partly consisting of Jews from Limburg, a province in the South of the Netherlands and, according to some survivors, a large number from Haarlem as well. More than seven hundred Jews had been deported from Limburg. The largest deportation from the southern province took place on August 25, 1942. The Zentralstelle (the Central Office) in Amsterdam possessed lists of all the Jews. These had been produced by the mayors of the different municipalities in June 1942 and formed the core of the the deportation lists. After those exempted (by means of the so called Sperre or Rückstellungen, (German legal terms to indicate postponement of deportation) were deleted, almost 600 persons were left. These were without exception under 60 years old. The mayor of Limburg received a letter from the Joodse Raad, the Jewish Council, of Amsterdam announcing the possibility of the departure of a number of Jewish residents to labour camps in Germany. They were assembled in the public school in the Prof. P. Willemsstraat that was located near the train station. The Zentralstelle passed the order for the call-ups and arrests to the mayors in the case of smaller municipalities or to the Police in larger ones. Policemen delivered the summons to the home addresses of the Jews on August 24. Post war testimonies of survivors from Limburg regarding this transport are all similar: the deportees left Limburg on August 25 and stayed in Westerbork for only three days. From Westerbork they had to walk to Hooghalen under supervision of the SS while the O.D (Ordnungsdienst, a team of Jewish Westerbork inmates that was established to maintain order in the camp) was forced to assist. The number of deportees is not clear. Survivors report much larger numbers than other sources. The same lack of clarity exists for the number of men under 50 years of age who left the train at Cosel. Some survivors say 150 men left in Cosel, but others mention as many as 300. As mentioned earlier there was also a large number of Jews from Haarlem on this train. On Monday August 24, 650 Jews from Haarlem received a letter ordering them to report for deportation. However, only 149 presented themselves the following day at the Bavo School on the Westergracht Street, so the Germans carried out a raid in the evening and caught thirty more. During the night of August 25, a special train (Sonderzug) with 179 Jews from Haarlem left from the Westergracht to Westerbork. From there, 110 of them were deported to Auschwitz....