Punishment hut 67, Westerbork Camp
Jews rounded up or discovered while in hiding are sent to hut 67, the prison barracks in Camp Westerbork.
The eight people from the Secret Annex all ended up in the prison barracks after their registration in Camp Westerbork.[1] The prison barracks were overcrowded by September 1944, with four to five hundred people per barrack. The eight people from the Secret Annex ended up in prison barrack 67.[2]
The barracks were divided into one half for men and one half for women. In the mornings and evenings, everyone had to report to the barracks or hall leader. Outside working hours, men, women and families could be together. In the middle of the hut was a distribution kitchen and through this kitchen you could reach the hut sections for the men or the women on the right or left. At ten in the evening, everyone had to be back in their own section, the door between the two sections was closed and the lights went out at a quarter past ten.[3]
The barracks in which people had to sleep had a washroom at the head with oblong sinks with taps above them, but only one toilet, which could only be used at night. Outside were small red toilet blocks with collective toilets (sometimes called 'the egg racks' by the prisoners) for men and women separately, which could only be used during the day. The prisoners slept in bunk beds three high with straw mattresses. Sometimes the mattresses were missing. There were many complaints about fleas in the mattresses and bedding. In the middle of the barracks were tables at which people ate. It was so crowded that people sometimes had to eat standing up.[4] Some prisoners lacked basic things, such as underwear, blankets, or toiletries.[5] The eight people from the Secret Annex had been given time to pack their belongings, but many prisoners who had been rounded up unexpectedly had not been able to bring anything.
Footnotes
- ^ See: Wikipedia: Strafbarak Kamp Westerbork.
- ^ Het Nederlandse Rode Kruis, Den Haag, Joodsche Raad Kaarten van Otto Frank (doss. nr. 118834), Edith Frank-Holländer (117265), Margot Frank (117267), Anne Frank (117266), Auguste van Pels-Röttgen en Hermann van Pels (103586), Peter van Pels (135177), Fritz Pfeffer (7500).
- ^ Herrineringscentrum Westerbork (HCKW), Westerbork, Dagboek Jacob de Swart, p. 24. Other sources sometimes mention different hours ((varying from 9 to 10:30 p.m.).
- ^ Anita Mayer, Als ik Hitler maar kan overleven, Nieuwkoop: Heuff, 1990, p. 71.
- ^ HCKW, RA 2022, Brief 9 juli 1944 van Greet Schoemaker-Lisser aan de familie R. van Sitteren. Greet writes from the prison baracks and asks for a blanket, underwear, a spoon, a fork, a knife and a towel.She arrived at the camp without anything. She leaves with the transport of 3 September 1944; HCKW, Jacob de Swart, Dagboek, p. 24.