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Auguste van Pels emprisoned in Raguhn

Auguste van Pels was transported from Bergen-Belsen to a Buchenwald satellite camp called Raguhn. There she had to perform forced labour until, fatally ill, she was again put on a transport to Theresienstadt. She died during the transport.

Event

Feb. 10, 1945 - April 9, 1945

51.705167 N 12.269028 E

Raguhn

Duitsland

On 7 February 1945, Auguste van Pels was deported from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to Raguhn, a Buchenwald satellite camp. The transport arrived after three days on 10 February 1945. Auguste van Pels was number 457 on the transport list and was given registration number 67357.[1] This was a Buchenwald registration number.[2]  The prisoners wore prisoners' clothing and walked under guard through Raguhn each day to their work in the factory.[3] It is not known what kind of work Auguste had to do. Witnesses who were there at the same time as Auguste van Pels, have spoken about the work they had to do. Cato Polak and Annelore Daniel did assembly work in an aircraft factory.[4] Rachel van Amerongen worked in a Kartoffel-Kommando, a potato workforce.[5]

On 9 April 1945, Auguste was put on a transport again with the final destination of Theresienstadt. She was very sick and weakened by then.[6] It was a terrible journey; the train was regularly shelled and stopped for long periods.[7] During this transport (which arrived in Theresienstadt) Auguste van Pels died. There are two statements on this. Rachel van Amerongen Frankfoorder, who was part of the same transport, stated for 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 thus killed." As the transport started on 9 April 1945, this is a reason to state that Auguste van Pels' date of death was in the first half of April 1945.[8] Annelore Daniel, a fellow prisoner from Bergen-Belsen, said that Auguste van Pels had died on the train en route from Raguhn to Theresienstadt and that she herself had laid Auguste down by the side of the tracks, in the verge, and left her behind.[9]

Footnotes

  1. ^  Het Nederlandse Rode Kruis (NRK), Den Haag, inv. nr. 704: Transport vom Bergen-Belsen nach Raguhn.  
  2. ^ Omdat het buitencommando Raguhn onderdeel was van het concentratiekamp Buchenwald, werden de vrouwen opgenomen in de administratie van dat kamp en kregen ze ‘Buchenwaldnummers’.
  3. ^ Willy Lindwer, De laatste zeven maanden. Vrouwen in het spoor van Anne Frank, Hilversum: Gooi & Sticht, 1988, p. 122.
  4. ^ NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies, Amsterdam, inv.no. 804: Vernietigingskamp Sobibor: Verklaring Cato Polak, 20 oktober 1947; Annelore Daniel, interview.
  5. ^ Lindwer, De laatste zeven maanden, p. 122.
  6. ^ Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), GetuigenVerhalen II, Interview met Annelore Beem- Daniel, Bilthoven, 19 mei 2014.
  7. ^ Archief Gedenkstätte Bergen-Belsen: Getuigenis Simone Grzybowski; Lindwer, De laatste zeven maanden, p. 122-123.
  8. ^ NRK, Collectie Westerbork en de reconstructie van de lotgevallen na WOII, 1939-2007, inv.nr. 1237, Verklaring Rachel van Amerongen.
  9. ^ AFS, GetuigenVerhalen II, Interview met Annelore Beem- Daniel, Bilthoven, 19 mei 2014.