Transport from Westerbork, Camp, The Netherlands to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 07/09/1943

By September 1943, the Nazis had rendered the activities of the Joodse Raad (Jewish Council) largely unnecessary and ceased to take it into account. In fact, by May the Sipo (Sicherheitspolizei - Security Police) demanded that 7,000 of its employees be handed over, and on September 29, 1943, the eve of Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year), some 2,000 Jews in Amsterdam—including the members and leaders of the Joodse Raad—were arrested and sent to Westerbork, thus bringing an end to the Council. On Tuesday, September 7, 1943, the 75th transport from the Netherlands departed from Westerbork for Auschwitz. The train comprised 27 cars and carried 987 deportees. There were 96 children on this transport. The youngest was born in Westerbork on August 8, one month minus one day before the transport. Philip Mechanicus was a 54 year old journalist who had been arrested in September 1942 and taken to Kamp Amersfoort (a forced labour camp in the Netherlands). From there he was transferred to Westerbork in November 1942 where he kept a diary. On September 7 he wrote: “There was another transport this morning. The men and women who feared they would be deported packed yesterday evening with a resignation that could have been mistaken for courage, but was simply the resignation of human beings not familiar with the passion of indignation and opposition. It is the resignation of caged beasts who have lost their natural impulses and have got used to the cage. No word of protest, just calm preparation for the journey.” He then proceeds with an explanation of the term ‘smashing’ which referred to the withdrawal of lists of Jews who for various reasons were exempt from transportation. But, he wrote, not all the listings had actually been revoked. “Fräulein Slottke [secretary to Wilhem Zöpf, head of IVB-4 Referat in the Netherlands] had merely rejected “applications from Jews who wished to be considered for the list and had put down the applicants for deportation. Such is the power of Fräulein Slottke!”...