Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 05/04/1944

Early in the morning of April 5 a rather unusual transport departed from Westerbork. The train consisted of cattle wagons and passenger cars and another train carrying 625 Belgian Jews from Mechelen was added not far from Westerbork. The cattle cars (comprising 240 deportees) and the Belgian transport were sent to Auschwitz. The passenger cars contained 101 deportees headed for Bergen-Belsen, 289 deportees for Theresienstadt, and a few dozen Romanian Jews for Ravensbrück (41 women and children) and Buchenwald (28 men). According to one survivor from the Theresienstadt transport, these disparate parts of the train were disconnected on the way at places where an engine was waiting. Dr. Gabriel Italie a diarist who was interned in Westerbork confirms: “On April 5 a large transport left. Some deportees were sent to Celle, some to Theresienstadt, some to Auschwitz (the latter one in cattle wagons). There was also one group whose destination was not known, the Romanian Jews who were still here. […] People said that in Assen 13 wagons with Belgian Jews were added […] The train also carried mail: we wrote a letter to Paul [his son].” The transport to Auschwitz numbered 6 cars and amongst the 240 deportees there were 29 children, the youngest of whom was born on March 6, 1944....