Work 'on the batteries'

At camp Westerbork, the eight people in hiding had to perform forced labour. Criminal cases, like the eight people from the Secret Annex, had to work in the camp's industrial section and help produce for the German war industry. Sabotage in the process fell under military criminal law because, according to Camp Commander SS-Obersturmführer Albert Konrad Gemmeker (1907-1982), the goods involved were important for the war effort.^[1]

The people from the Secret Annex probably worked at the 'batteries', the barracks where batteries were recycled. Jannie Brilleslijper explained how battery scrapping was done:

´We had to chop open the batteries with a chisel and a hammer and then throw the tar in one basket and the carbon rod you took out in the other basket; you had to tap off the metal cap with a metal screwdriver and that went back into the third basket.'^[2]

Recycling batteries was dirty and unhealthy work. The prisoners became soot-blackened. After work, they went to the showers accompanied by the Order Department (OD), but most had no soap to wash themselves with.^[3] Jannie Brilleslijper recounted:

' Apart from getting incredibly dirty we all got coughs because it secreted a certain substance. The nice thing about working was that you could talk to each other. It was such dead work that you could exchange views there.' ^[4]

Jannie Brilleslijper recalled that while working, her sister Rebekka Brilleslijper in particular had a lot of contact with Edith Frank.^[4]

Although prisoners who had to do this work received an extra ration of milk daily, many of them tried to switch to a better job. Otto Frank also tried to arrange a better job for his daughter Anne through Rachel Frankfoorder, who worked in 'internal services' and mainly had to scrub and clean toilets. However, Rachel Frankfoorder could do nothing for her because she had no say in the matter, so Anne continued to work at the batteries.^[5]