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Camp Westerbork - Punishment


Railroad tracks in Juden Durchgangslager Westerbork


       Transgression against one of the strict, unreasonable for sure, camp rules could earn an inmate hard labor in a punishment detail, and confinement to the penal rather than to be assigned to the regular barracks. An arm band featuring the letter S identified a transgressor. S stood for Straf - Punishment. More serious offenders, such as those who had attempted an escape or who had been caught hiding, also wore an arm band with the letter "S." They too were locked up in the Penal Block for the night but were not detailed to work outside camp perimeters. The Penal Block was policed by the hated OD - Ordnungsdienst - Jewish camp police. The latter were fellow inmates who sought postponement from deportation by serving in the unpopular Jewish camp guards. Besides guarding the Penal Block they were also held responsible for the smooth embarkation of the dreaded deportation trains. Again, I wish to stress that survival was on the mind of every individual. Therefore ask yourself, what would you have done under similar circumstances?

Two women wearing a "S" armband dig for potatoes

The penal gang returning to the barracks


       Anne Frank and her family were looked upon as hardened criminals because they had gone into hiding in order to evade capture and the dreaded incarceration in Westerbork. When discovered as a result of betrayal, the family was captured and sent to Westerbork where they were locked up for one month in the Penal Block in Westerbork before they were deported to Auschwitz. Because of the approaching Russian armies, the Nazi extermination machine at Birkenau had for the most part come to a grinding halt. Inmates considered healthy enough, according to Nazi standards, made the journey leaving Auschwitz/Birkenau under guard. They were transported either by cattle car or on foot. The latter were the so-called death marches. Ultimately, if or when they made it, they would reach Bergen-Belsen or a similar concentration camp somewhere in Nazi Germany. The death factory at Birkenau had stopped operating, yet Anne and her sister Margot who were transported out of Birkenau later died in Bergen-Belsen just the same. Not as a result of mass extermination, but as a result of ill-treatment, malnutrition, and sickness. Mother Frank died in Birkenau of starvation, while father Frank survived Birkenau. He was rescued by the Red army.