Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 24/08/1943

One of the main issues that Harster raised in his letter concerned the policy toward Jews living in “mixed marriages.” Harster mentioned the possibility of forcing them to undergo voluntary sterilization so they could avoid deportation to the East. In a meeting on May 18, 1943, at the Central Office in Amsterdam, attended by Wilhelm Zöpf, Ferdinand aus der Fünten, SS Sturmbannführer Dr. Eduard Meyer, and others, the question of how to relate to this group of Jews was discussed at length and Harster's plan was indeed put into effect in the Netherlands. In the Reich, however, Jews living in mixed marriages were still exempt from deportation and remained untouched. On May 21, 1943, Rolf Günther, Eichmann’s deputy at the Department for Jewish Affairs and Evacuation at the RSHA (Department IV B4), passed on an order to deport all other remaining Jews in the Reich to the East or to the Theresienstadt ghetto. In the minutes of the weekly meeting of the Jewish Council (Joodse Raad) dated August 20, it is stated that in the past week only ‘criminal cases’ (a reference to Jews who were usually caught in hiding) had been transferred to Westerbork via the Hollandse Schouwburg, a former theater which functioned as an assembly site. Furthermore it is mentioned that ‘a transport will probably leave from Westerbork this coming Tuesday [August 24, 1943]. The transport will likely consist of criminal cases and the sick, perhaps the elderly will also be added.’...