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Death of Auguste van Pels

Auguste van Pels died during the train journey from Raguhn to Theresienstadt. The location is not known. The exact date is also not known but was between 9 and 16 April 1945.

Event

April 9, 1945 - April 16, 1945

51.705167 N 12.269028 E

Raguhn

Duitsland

The date and place of death of Auguste van Pels are not precisely known and have been reconstructed by the Dutch Red Cross as being between 9 April 1945 and 8 May 1945 in Germany or Czechoslovakia.[1] This is the period between the evacuation transport from Raguhn to Theresienstadt on 9 April 1945 and the liberation of Theresienstadt on 8 May 1945.

Rachel van Amerongen Frankfoorder, who was part of the same transport as Auguste, stated to the Red Cross on 28 September 1945: "During the journey from Ranguhn to Theresienstadt, Mrs Gusti van Pels-Roettgen, about 42 years old, was thrown under the train by the Germans and, as a result, killed."[2] Otto Frank stated that he heard from someone that Auguste had died in a train carriage after being evacuated from Bergen Belsen.[3] Annelore Daniel told Otto Frank after the war that Auguste died beside her during the train journey from Raguhn to Theresienstadt and was then laid beside the train.[4] Bertha Kaas-Hekster also states something about Auguste's death: "(... ) died there of typhus or on transport to Theresienstadt I remember (...) Gusta Pels - German by birth, but deported from Amsterdam."[5]

This transport started on 9 April 1945 and Auguste's date of death is given as the first half of April 1945 as a result.[1]

Footnotes

  1. a, b Het Nederlandse Rode Kruis (NRK), Den Haag, dossier Hermann van Pels, dossiernummer 103586: Joodse Raad kaart Auguste Roettgen (sic); ibid. Verklaring Nederlandsche Roode Kruis, februari 1961.
  2. ^ NRK, Collectie Westerbork en de reconstructie van de lotgevallen na WOII, 1939-2007, inv.nr. 1237, verklaring Rachel van Amerongen.
  3. ^ AFS, Anne Frank Collectie, Otto Frank Archief, reg. code OFA_076: Otto Frank aan Rechtsanwaltin Elisabeth Späth (i.v.m. Entschädigung Auguste van Pels), 13 april 1960.
  4. ^ AFS, Getuigenverhalen II, interview met Annelore Beem- Daniel, Bilthoven, 19 mei 2014.
  5. ^ Nederlands Rode Kruis (NRK), Bureau Oorlogsnazorg (toegang 2050), inv. nr. 1204: verklaring Bertha Kaas - Hekster, 8 januari 1948.