Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 23/03/1944

On March 23 the 92nd transport left from Westerbork to Auschwitz. It comprised 20 cars which carried 599 deportees amongst whom were 54 children. During the final phase of the deportation of the Dutch Jews, transports comprised those who had been caught in hiding, individuals who for various reasons had been exempt from deportation but were now included in the transport lists, as well as small groups of Jews who until now had escaped the attention of the German authorities. This transport illustrates the character of the deportations towards the end of the war. A large number of the deportees on the March 23 train (224 according to a Red Cross report) consisted of Jews who had been transported on March 20 from the Vught transit camp to Westerbork. Dr. Arthur Lehmann head of the Jewish administration at Vught wrote in his post-war report: “On March 20, orders were given that all Jews had to leave the camp. The entire camp had to line up in the afternoon and the industry park that was operated in the camp and that included a large workshop of the Philips factory was closed. Then, after a new order received by phone, the non-Jews were marched back to their work together with the Jewish women." Dr. Lehmann himself was included in the transport to Westerbork. Due to the intervention of the management of the Philips factory that employed many of the prisoners, 90 men were allowed to return to Vught. Some of the men who were sent to Westerbork and subsequently to Auschwitz were diamond workers who were considered irreplaceable and had therefore been protected until now....