Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Sobibor, Extermination Camp, Poland on 06/04/1943

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 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 sixth transport destined for Sobibor death camp departed from Westerbork transit camp on April, 6, 1943, it consisted of 2,020 deportees. Most of the deportees were murdered upon arrival. There are only two known survivors form this transport. Ursula stern (Ilana Safran), recalled in her post testimony the following: " My Parents hiding place was discovered and they were deported to Auschwitz where they died… When our hiding place was discovered…I was sent to Utrecht prison… then we were transferred to Amstelveen and, finally to Vught […] Food was bad but adequate. We suffered a lot from repetitive roll calls. Later we were transferred to Westerbork. The gathering place of Dutch Jews, and we remained there for one week. In April 1943, we left for Poland. The journey to Poland was dreadful […] When we reached Sobibor a selection took place: young girls were placed on one side, the others including children, went to the gas chambers. We were given postcards. "Write to your families that you have arrived safely". I wrote a card to some Dutch friends, it reached its destination, and I found it after the war. Sobibor was hell[...] Selma Wijnberg (Saartje Engel), the other known survivor from this transport recalled: In 1942, I was arrested with my family and interned in Westerbork. We were 8,000 prisoners, and the German officers announced that were going to work in Poland or the Ukraine, and we were to take with us our shoes, clothes, and food. Letters were arriving from Wladowa, confirming that life was pleasant in Poland. Later I knew it was a lie, as the prisoners were forced to sign printed postcards.