Westerbork

The Netherlands

Westerbork, in northeastern Netherlands, began in 1939 as camp for German Jewish refugees operated by the Dutch. The Nazis transformed it into a transit camp in 1942. Some 2000 inmates were maintained as a “permanent” population for the camp and allowed to organize cultural and other “normal” activities. However, most inmates stayed only a few days or weeks. Approximately 107,000 Jews passed through the camp, more than 95% of whom were killed after being were deported to the killing centers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor or, in much smaller numbers, to the camps at Bergen-Belsen and Theresianstadt. Anne Frank was deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz in September of 1944. After seven weeks she was transported to Bergen-Belson, where she died of typhus in March of 1945.