Evacuation of Auschwitz
In mid-January 1945, Auschwitz was evacuated and Peter van Pels and Otto Frank had to say goodbye tp each other.
Approaching Soviet troops evacuated Auschwitz in mid-January 1945, with the exception of the infirmary huts. Otto Frank had been admitted to the infirmary hut from November 1944, where he was visited daily by Peter van Pels. In vain, Otto tried to convince Peter not to join the transport, but to hide in the infirmary hut.[1] According to Otto Frank, however, Peter was optimistic about his chances and wanted to join the evacuation transport together with the people he worked with.
Peter van Pels was eventually part of the group of prisoners who left Auschwitz on 18 January 1945 and ended up in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Samuel Meijer Kropveld (1885-1978), who worked as a doctor in the infirmary huts, also joined the 'healthy' prisoners on the transport and, like Peter, ended up in Mauthausen. Kropveld described in his camp report that he had seriously considered staying behind, but decided to go anyway when he heard that the sick might not be left alive.[2] Peter had probably heard similar rumours and possibly thought his chances of survival were better if he went with the rest.