Transport from Vught, Camp, The Netherlands to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 18/10/1943

On October 5, 1943, the Reich Commissioner (Reichskommissar) for the Netherlands, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, advised his General Commissioners (Generalkommissare) — Hanns Rauter, Wilhelm Ritterbusch, Friedrich Wimmer, and Hans Fischböck—that those defined as “full Jews” (Volljuden) could be deported from the Netherlands but that others could not namely, “mixed Jews” (Mischjuden), Jews who had “ aryan” spouses, and others who were exempt from deportation for various reasons such as those who had volunteered themselves for sterilization. Several groups of Jews whom Seyss-Inquart defined as “full Jews” were excused from deportation: approximately 30 who were absolved from having to wear the yellow star, a few Protestant Jews, and those who were interned in Barneveld and used connections to protect themselves. 276 Jews were deported in the transport that set out from Vught on October 18, 1943, including 27 children, three defined as “offenders” (Straffällige), and five defined as ill; one of these, Klara Weenen-Goudeketting, was in her fifth month of pregnancy. This deportation train was the 17th to depart from Vught for Westerbork. When it reached its destination, the deportees detrained and were registered. Several may have spent some time in Westerbork; the others—as well as several Jews who were already in Westerbork—boarded a train bound for Auschwitz, evidently the same one that had delivered them from Vught. Some of the deportees from Vught had worked for the Luftwaffe and were sent away despite the aforementioned instructions. Two of them—Arthur Pop (b. 1912) and Izak de Lange (b. 1915)—survived and gave testimony after the war. They had been in several camps previously: Arthur had been taken to Westerbork on July 17, 1942, and to Vught about a month later, whence he had been sent to Moerdijk and Venlo. In Venlo on October 3, 1943, he received notice of his transport, was returned to Vught that day, and was issued with plain clothes. (In Venlo, the inmates wore prison uniforms.) Izak de Lange had been taken prisoner of war in Germany in 1940 and volunteered to go to Vught with his wife and children on April 9, 1943; he spent about seven weeks there. When Pop and De Lange were sent back to Vught for labour, they found that their family members had been taken away. From Vught, De Lange was transferred to Arnhem and Venlo, whence his route resembled Arthur’s....