Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Sobibor, Extermination Camp, Poland on 02/03/1943

Very little is actually known about the train journey itself from the Netherlands to Sobibor. Out of a total of nearly 34, 000 Jews deported from the Netherlands to Sobibor during the spring of 1943, only 19 survived till the end of the War. This extremely high death toll was due to the nature of this site which was designed solely as an extermination camp. Following the arrival of a transport, most deportees were rapidly stripped of their clothes, women's hair was cut and then they were forced into gas chambers camouflaged as showers, and murdered. The first transport destined for Sobibor departed from Westerbork on March 2, 1943. It was comprised of 1001 deportees (some sources cite the figure 1111), among them were 412 men, and 689 women. According to a study carried out by Aline Pennewaard, the majority of deportees on this transport had arrived in Westerbork, just a few days prior to their departure. Most of the deportees were residents of Amsterdam, however, a distinct group was comprised of 268 Jews rounded up from several Jewish institutions in Rotterdam on February 26. Among them were patients and staff members (doctors and nurses) of the Jewish hospital , residents of a nursing home and children from an orphanage. The arrests in Rotterdam were carried out in a brutal manner by W.A men (members of the Dutch National Socialist Party's militia), alongside German security personnel and Dutch policemen. The oldest deportee was a 97 year old widow; the youngest was a two month old infant, born in Westerbork. 72 of the deportees were listed as prisoners (Häftlinge). This term was applied to Jews who were arrested, while in hiding or violating an Anti-Jewish decree (such as not wearing the yellow star or violating the 8 pm curfew). Their distinct treatment had already begun in Westerbork where they were interned in separate barracks, their heads were shaved and they wore a blue overall. Charlotte Grünebaum (born 14.11.1912), who appears on a registry of Jews deported from Westerbork, seems to have escaped the deportation train. There are no details regarding the exact route of this train to Sobibor. The transport arrived in Sobibor on March 5 , most of the deportees were sent immediately upon arrival to the gas chambers and murdered. However, according to records of the Red Cross, it would appear that several deportees were selected for forced labor tasks. Historian and survivor Jules Schelvis discovered postcards and letters sent by 13 people that were on this transport. The post cards were sent from an air field in Lublin (Lublin Alte Flughafen) to the Netherlands, all of them arrived on the same date in the Netherlands: September 7 1943, approximately six months after the transport took place. Two additional letters of deportees sent from Auschwitz Birkenau arrived in The Netherlands in January 1944. Charlotte Grünbaum seems to be the only survivor from this Transport. Dov Freiberg a native of Warsaw and an inmate in Sobibor, was present when this transport apparently arrived. In his memoirs he recalls: "One of the transports from Holland brought in the entire staff of a Jewish hospital- doctors, nurses management and patients. The Hospital management organized them swiftly. Before the people had even finished descending from the boxcars, the hospital was already functioning. A table was set up in the open area next to the barracks, someone sat at it- apparently the hospital director- and around him stood doctors and nurses in white uniforms, checking lists, giving out medicine […] The place was converted into a field hospital. Nurses helped patients walk to Lager 2 [ camp 2] and some were taken on stretchers. The management staff occasionally addressed the Germans – apparently they requested items needed for the sick – and it appeared as though the Germans had succeeded in pulling the wool over their eyes until the last moment. In a short time everything had been moved to Lager 2[…]