Death of Peter van Pels

There is uncertainty about Peter van Pels' exact date of death. According to his archive card in the Amsterdam population register, he died on 5 May 1945 in Mauthausen.^[1] This date was taken from the data of the Dutch Red Cross, which in turn relied on a list drawn up by the US army at the liberation of Mauthausen on 5 May 1945.^[2] According to another list drawn up after the liberation of Mauthausen, Peter van Pels died on 10 May 1945.^[3]

On 11 April 1945, Peter van Pels was sent back to Mauthausen and ended up in the Sanitätslager (also called Sterbelager or Russenlager), where only deathly ill and those unfit for work were put.^[3] Practically no one survived long here; the Sanitätslager was basically just a place to die. The death books of Mauthausen itself kept until liberation do not record the death of Peter van Pels.^[4] The Comité International de la Croix-Rouge declared on 9 September 1958 that Peter van Pels had died on 10 May 1945 according to the Liste von Verstorbenen nach der befreiung in Mauthausen.^[5] The Dutch Red Cross, on the other hand, declared in October 1960 that Peter van Pels had died on 5 May 1945 according to the Liste der Verstorbenen in Mauthausen.^[2] 

Although it is hard to believe that Peter van Pels could have survived the period from 11 April to 10 May 1945 in the Sanitätslager, we assume 10 May 1945 as his date of death.^[6]