Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Sobibor, Extermination Camp, Poland on 08/06/1943

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 18 survived the War. This extremely high death toll was due to the nature of this site which was designed solely as an annihilation camp. Following the arrival of a transport, most deportees were rapidly stripped of their clothes, the women's hair was cut and then they were forced into gas chambers camouflaged as showers, and murdered. The 15th transport destined for Sobibior departed from Westerbork transit camp on June 8, 1943. This was a relatively large transport, comprising 3,017 people. It is known as the "Children's Transport" (Kindertransport) as it included 1,145 children between the ages of 0-16. Most of the children and some of their mothers had been transferred from camp Vught to Westerbork in two earlier transports that arrived in Westerbork on June 7 and on June 8. The deportees from the second transport that arrived at Westerbork from Vught were brutally removed from the train and immediately transferred to a second awaiting train destined for Sobibor. The deportees were unaware of their final destination. Philip Mechanicus, an inmate and journalist by profession, recorded the arrival of this transport from Vught and the departure to Sobibor: […] Some of them were simply transferred, amid snarling and shouting, beating and pummeling, from the dirty cattle and goods wagon they had come in to the dirty cattle and goods wagon that would take them to the east. The quota had to be complete. People here cannot see a single one of these trains without either cursing or sobbing or feeling revulsion. The train goes according to schedule and this is torture and a torment. It is never late, it is never hit by a bomb. Why has providence left us in the lurch? Several ailing children are being sent on the transport with their parents or just with their mothers who are being deported to the east. A post card thrown out of this train was found and sent to the Netherlands, it was dated June 8, 1943 and written by a woman named Stella. Her exact identity remains unclear: "We are on the train, who knows where. Some say Poland, Others Riga […] there are about 3,000 people. Mostly women and children under 16. The men were not allowed to come. What a misery [..] . Hope to see you again." The train arrived in Sobibor on June 11, 1943. There are no survivors from this transport.