Westerbork was the main transit camp used by the Germans during their occupation of Holland to send Jews to the death camps in Poland. Between July 1942, and September 1943, approximately 110,00 Jewish people passed through the two camps. Westerbork was located near Assen, in northeastern Holland.
It was actually set up by the Dutch government before the Nazi invasion, as a refugee camp for Jews fleeing persecution in Germany. After the Nazi takeover, the Germans employed the German Jewish refugees to run their camp in an orderly, efficient manner.
Life in the camp was dominated by hope, but above all by fear; and every Monday evening a list of the week's 1,020 deportees was announced to the inmates in their sealed barracks. …
