Editing Westerbork transit camp (section)

== Purpose of Camp Westerbork ==
The camp location was established by the Government of the Netherlands in the summer of 1939 to serve as a refugee camp for [[Germans]] and [[Austrians]] (German and Austrian Jews in particular), who had fled to the Netherlands to escape [[Nazism|Nazi]] persecution.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-westerbork|title=Westerbork Transit Camp|last=Project Aice|website=Jewish Virtual Library|access-date=28 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Camp Westerbork |website=Traces of War |author=Prenger, Kevin |publisher=STIWOT (Stichting Informatie Wereldoorlog Twee) |url=https://www.tracesofwar.com/articles/4439/Camp-Westerbork.htm |access-date=2021-05-18}}</ref>

[[File:WesterborkLageplan.jpg|thumb|left|Map of Camp Westerbork]]
[[File:Westerbork-monument2.jpg|thumb|left|Reconstructed watchtower at Westerbork]]
However, after the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, that original purpose no longer existed. By 1942, Camp Westerbork was repurposed as a staging ground for the deportation of Jews.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Boulevard Des Miseres The Story of Transit Camp Westerbork|last=Boas|first=Jacob|publisher=Archon Books|year=1985|isbn=0208019774|location=Hamden, Connecticut|pages=3–32}}</ref> Only {{convert|50|ha|acre}} in area, the camp was not built for the purpose of industrial murder as were Nazi [[extermination camp]]s. Westerbork was considered by [[Nazi Party|Nazi]] standards as "humane".<ref name=":2" /> Jewish, Sinti and Roma inmates with families were housed in 200 interconnected cottages that contained two rooms, a toilet, a hot plate for cooking, as well as a small yard. Single inmates were placed in oblong [[barracks]] which contained a bathroom for each sex.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

Transport trains arrived at Westerbork every Tuesday from July 1942 to September 1944; an estimated 97,776 Jews, Sinti and Roma were deported during the period.<ref name=":0" /> Jewish, Sinti and Roma inmates were deported in waves to [[Auschwitz concentration camp]] (65 train-loads totaling 60,330 people), [[Sobibór extermination camp|Sobibór]] (19 train-loads; 34,313 people), [[Theresienstadt concentration camp|Theresienstadt ghetto]] and [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp]] (9 train-loads; 4,894 people).<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> Almost all of the 94,643 persons deported to Auschwitz and Sobibór in [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied Poland]] were killed upon arrival.<ref name=":0" />

Camp Westerbork also had a school, orchestra, hairdresser and even restaurants designed by [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] officials to give inmates a false sense of hope for survival and to aid in avoiding problems during transportation.<ref name=":1" /> Cultural activities provided by the Nazis for designated deportees included metalwork, jobs in [[health services]] and other cultural activities.<ref name=":1" />

A special, separate work cadre of 2,000 "permanent" Jewish, Sinti and Roma inmates were used as a camp labour force.<ref name=":0" /> Within this group was a subgroup constituting a camp [[Jewish Police (Holocaust)|police force]] which was required to assist with transports and keep order.<ref name=":0" /> The SS had little involvement with selecting transferees; this job fell to another class of inmates.<ref name=":1" /> Most of these 2,000 "permanent" inmates were eventually sent to concentration or death camps themselves.<ref name=":0" />

===Notable prisoners===
[[File:Westerbork, a school in the camp.jpg|left|thumb|Class photo from the school within Westerbork]]
Notable prisoners in Westerbork included [[Anne Frank]], who was transported to Camp Westerbork on 8 August 1944,<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Aftermath|last=Prose|first=Francine|publisher=Harper Collins|year=2009|location=New York, New York|pages=53–59}}</ref> as well as [[Etty Hillesum]], each of whom wrote of their experiences in diaries discovered after the war.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum Inscribing Spirituality and Sexuality|last=De Costa|first=Denise|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=1998|isbn=0813525500|location=New Brunswick, New Jersey|pages=167–191}}</ref> Frank remained at the camp in a small hut until 3 September, when she was deported to Auschwitz.<ref name=":3" />

Hillesum was able to avoid the Nazi dragnet that identified Jews until April 1942.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Hanan |first=Frenk |date=31 December 1999 |title=Etty Hillesum |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hillesum-etty |access-date=20 April 2018 |website=Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. [[Jewish Women's Archive]]}}</ref> Even after being labeled a Jew, she began to report on [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] policies. She took a job with [[Judenrat]] for two weeks and then volunteered to accompany the first group of Jews sent to Westerbork.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> Hillesum stayed at Westerbork until 7 September 1943, when she was deported to Auschwitz, where she was killed three months later.<ref name=":5" />

[[File:Hut-AnneFrank-Westerbork.jpg|thumb|Parts of a rebuilt hut at Westerbork, which once held Anne Frank]]
Camp Westerbork also housed German film actress and cabaret singer [[Dora Gerson]] who was interned there with her family before being sent to Auschwitz and Professor Sir [[William Asscher]] who survived the camp when his mother secured his family's release by fabricating English ancestry. [[Jona Oberski]] wrote of his experience as a small child at Westerbork in his book, ''Kinderjaren'' ("Childhood"), published in the Netherlands in 1978 and later made into the film, ''[[Jonah Who Lived in the Whale]]''.

[[Maurice Frankenhuis]] chronicled his family's experiences while interned in Westerbork and in 1948 conducted an interview with its Commander Albert Konrad Gemmeker while Gemmeker awaited trial. The published interview in Dutch and English became the basis for a docudrama created in September 2019.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.dvhn.nl/drenthe/midden-drenthe/Premi%C3%A8re-korte-speelfilm-Gemmeker-met-historische-transportbeelden-in-kleur-24815045.html|title=Première korte speelfilm Gemmeker met historische transport beelden in kleur|date=September 12, 2019|language=nl}}</ref> The film features colorization of original video of transports from Westerbork by photographer [[Rudolf Breslauer]].

Another prisoner at Camp Westerbork from 9 March 1944 to 23 March 1944 was [[Hans Mossel]] (1905–1944), a Jewish-[[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[clarinet]]ist and [[Saxophone|saxophonist]], before he was sent to the [[Monowitz concentration camp|Auschwitz III camp]].<ref>[https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/archive/1-2-4-2_1242013/?p=1&doc_id=130344735 Information on the deportation of Hans Mossel via the Arolson online archives.]</ref>

On 16 May 2024, a memorial was erected to remember the famous Sinti families [[:nl:Tata Mirando|Weiss]] (Tata Mirando) and Meinhardt, who lost some 200 members of their families to the Holocaust, transported from Westerbork camp to [[Auschwitz-Birkenau]].