In May of 1941 Hess took off in a specially prepared aircraft to fly to Scotland on a "peace mission". While some sources reported that Hess had been on an official mission, Churchill later stated in his book The Grand Alliance that in his view, the mission had not been authorized. "He came to us of his own free will, and, though without authority, had something of the quality of an envoy", said Churchill, and referred to Hess's plan as one of "lunatic benevolence". Hess died 17 August 1987 (aged 93) in Spandau Prison, West Berlin. Photo: Wreckage of Hess's Messerschmitt Bf 110 at the site of the crash.

April 21, 1933: A day after Adolf Hitler's 44th birthday, Rudolf Hess was appointed as the first Deputy to the Führer of Germany (Stellvertreter des Führers), a ceremonial job with no actual power..

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1166 people leave camp #Westerbork on the 8th transport for #Sobibor extermination camp in cattle cars. Upon the arrival on Friday, April 23, they were all gassed. Two of the victims are Salomon (29) and Bertha (30) Cohen. Before they were arrested they had already put their baby Ellen, 4 months old, in hiding and so she was able to survive. In 2007 Ellen joined the ‘Memorial trip’ of the Sobibor Foundation. She visited the place where her parents were murdered. Photo: Salomon and Bertha Cohen on their wedding day.

April 20, 1943: 1166 people left camp #Westerbork on the 8th transport for #Sobibor extermination camp. Upon the arrival on they were all gassed. Two of the victims are Salomon (29) and Bertha (30). Their baby Ellen, 4 months old was in hiding and was able to survive.

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photo: Red Cross nurse Loes van Overeem in 1945 after taking control of camp Amersfoort.

April 19, 1945: Camp Amersfoort was officially handed over by Karl Schöngarth, the head of the Sicherheitspolizei and the SD, to Red Cross nurse Loes van Overeem. She remained as camp "caretaker" until May 7 when the Canadian Army officially liberate the camp.

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Bentsion Baruch Hirsch and his wife were imprisoned in camp #Westerbork in May of 1943. In January of 1944 he was transported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In early April, prisoners from the #BergenBelsen concentration camp were transported in three trains to the #Theresienstadt concentration camp. Many of those on board did not survive the journey. Bentsion died along the route between Lübben, Senftenberg, and Schipkau on April 18. He was buried on the stretch between Senftenberg and Schipkau, about 300 meters before the railway bridge near the village of Schipkau, on the south side of the tracks, approximately 30 meters from a switch. His wife survived the war and passed away in 2013. Photo: Wedding of Bentsion sister Jenny (who died in Sobibor together with her husband and children). Bentsion is standing behind the bride and groom in the back. He is the tallest man.

April 18, 1945: Bentsion Baruch Hirsch died in a train cattle car.
Bentsion died on a transport from #Bergen-Belsen to #Theresienstadt. Bentsion died along the route between Lübben, Senftenberg, and Schipkau.

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Photos: Hannie Schaft between 1938 and 1940

April 17, 1945: "The girl with the red hair" was executed by Dutch Nazi officials in the dunes of Overveen, near Bloemendaal. She was 24 years old.

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April 16, 1944: A raid was carried out by the SD (Sicherheitsdienst). A total of 486 men aged 16 to 30 from Beverwijk, Heemskerk and Velsen were transported via the railway station to camp Amersfoort where they endured various brutalities.

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When British and Canadian troops finally entered #BergenBelsen they found over 13,000 unburied bodies and around 60,000 inmates, most acutely sick and starving. Immediately before and after liberation, prisoners were dying at around 500 per day, mostly from typhus. The scenes that greeted British troops were described by the BBC's Richard Dimbleby, who accompanied them: ...Here over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which... The living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated, aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them ... Babies had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live ... A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms, then ran off, crying terribly. He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days. This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life. After the liberation there were massive efforts by the Allied to help the survivors with food and medical treatment. Despite this, about another 9,000 died in April, and by the end of June 1945 another 4,000 had died. (After liberation 13,994 people died.) The SS had managed to destroy the camp's administrative files, thereby eradicating most written evidence and who had been imprisoned and murdered there. Photo: British Army Rabbi Leslie Hardman in front of an open mass grave, 23 April 1945. Photo by Sgt. Oakes.

April 15, 1945: On that Sunday afternoon the British 11th Armored Division liberated #Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after an agreement with the retreating Germans to surrender the camp peacefully.

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Gerard Jansen fell victim to a trap set up by the SD (German Security Service). An informant fed fake information to the resistance of two SD agents that would be arriving at the train station in Zwolle carrying a bag full of incriminating information about the resistance in Meppel. The resistance took the bait, and on August 2, 1943, five resistance members went to Zwolle. Three of them, Harry Drogt, Jan Toet and Gerard Jansen, sat on the platform, while the other two returned to the car because one of them had accidentally left his hat behind. The trap was sprung, and the three on the platform were arrested. Toet and Jansen were shot and wounded during the arrest. The two who had returned to the car managed to escape and alert the resistance. After being admitted to the hospital and later transferred to #Westerbork transit camp, Jansen was taken to Camp Vught, where he was severely tortured during interrogations. He attempted to escape three times, and the resistance also tried to free him, but all attempts failed. On November 8, 1943, he was found guilty and a month later transferred to the Scheveningen prison, known as the #Oranjehotel, where he was held in cell 490 from December 15, 1943, to April 14, 1944. Along with fellow condemned prisoners Wiepke Harm Timersma, Gerrit Jan van den Berg, Jacob Kraal, Jan Rijkmans, Hendrik Drogt, Fokke Jagersma, and Johannes Kippers, he often sang psalms, something that was described by a fellow prisoner in a letter to his fiancée. On the morning of April 14, 1944, he and ten other resistance members were executed by firing squad at the #Waalsdorpervlakte. The Waalsdorpervlakte is located in the Meijendel dune area near The Hague. During World War Two, more than 250 people, including many members of the Dutch resistance, were executed here by the occupying Nazi forces. photo: Sign stating "No entry – site of executions 1940–1945”. Memorial site Waalsdorpervlakte.

April 14, 1944: Gerard Jansen, and ten other resistance members, is executed by a Nazi SD firing squad at the #Waalsdorpervlakte (The Hague, The Netherlands).

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Photo: A transport at camp Westerbork

April 13, 1943: For the 7th time a transport left camp #Westerbork for #Sobibor extermination camp, with 1204 men, women, and children aboard. Some deportees died along the way. Of the people deported on that Tuesday, not a single one survived the war.

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“It feels like a dream, a nightmare with a wonderful awakening,” said Abraham Querido. “The liberation of Westerbork is a miracle. The Krauts left, and the Canadians came in.” Sally Meijer climbed onto the first jeep he saw. “I drove triumphantly into the camp. The cheering and enthusiasm were enormous—the feeling of happiness at finally being free from the Nazis was indescribable.” The soldiers handed out cigarettes and chocolate. “I will never forget the taste of that first chocolate and the white bread,” said 11-year-old Ed van Thijn. The Allies asked Aad van As, a food distribution official, to raise the flags. “This was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. It was done while singing the Wilhelmus (national anthem of the Netherlands), and suddenly I felt the ground disappear beneath my feet. They lifted me up and danced around with me.” Liberation had already been in the air. A day earlier, camp commander Gemmeker and his staff had left the camp. Van As saw a transport leave Camp Westerbork ninety times. “Our barrack bordered the road along which the train passed—the Boulevard des Misères. From the window, we could see everything happening. Each time was heartbreaking.” He had thirty staff members and constantly tried to keep them off the transport lists. The transports stopped when the Allies entered the Netherlands halfway through last year. As a result, more than 850 Jews remained in the camp. They have now survived the war—after five grueling years. What remains for them is the question of how many of their family members and friends have also survived. What will they find when they return home? And when will they be able to go back? Photo: Canadian troops driving into Camp Westerbork, April 12, 1945.

April 12, 1945: Not a single shot was fired during the liberation of camp #Westerbork. A phone call announced it: the Tommies had reached the camp farm. The prisoners ran toward them. There was kissing, crying, laughter, and cheering.

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The 116 women were imprisoned in Camp Westerbork, ranging in age from 17 to 72. They had been arrested because of their (alleged) resistance activities or those of their family members. Upon arrival at the camp, they were forced to hand over their own clothes and wear blue overalls—previously worn by Jewish prisoners—with a red number on the back. Some of the women were also given a white band to wear on their left arm, marking them as prisoners who were under no circumstances to be released and thus certain death. Most of the women were put to work dismantling batteries. As the allied army approached, the German guards began to fear for their safety. They decided to use the 116 women as human shields. To avoid drawing attention, they planned to travel at night, bringing along more than 200 armed soldiers and the female prisoners. The women had no idea where they were being taken and feared for their lives. Some of the guards wanted to release the women so they could fight or flee themselves, but higher command forbade it. The commander was only allowed to release a few of the sick. These women were taken to Aduard and cared for at the parsonage of Reverend Lindeboom. The others dragged themselves onward again by evening, heading through Zuidhorn, Niezijl, and Grijpskerk toward Pieterzijl. Early in the morning, the group arrived at the De Nie farm owned by the De Vries family on Pieterzijlsterweg. The farmer feared the worst for the anxious women. Rumors about the war were spreading rapidly, and no one knew what to believe. Had Groningen fallen? Had paratroopers landed in Friesland? That afternoon, a German motorcycle officer rode onto the farm and delivered a message to the commander. Moments later, the women could hardly believe their ears. The commander finally said: "Sie sind allen entlassen!" — "You are all released!"

April 11, 1945: 200 German SS officers from camp #Westerbork made 116 women march for 3 nights away from the approaching allied army. This deportation march would later become known as the “Women’s March” (#Vrouwenmars).

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These were the final elections to the Reichstag during Nazi rule and took the form of a single-question referendum asking whether voters approved of a single list of Nazi and 11 pro-Nazi "guest" candidates for the 814-member Reichstag, as well as the recent annexation of Austria. Turnout in the election was officially 99.6% with 99.1% voting 'yes' in Germany and Austria. The elections were held largely to rally official support from the new Ostmark (Austrian) province, although further elections for 41 seats were held in the recently annexed Sudetenland on 4 December. NSDAP candidates and "guests" officially received 97.32% of the votes. The recently completed "Kraft durch Freude" cruise ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff was anchored in international waters near the United Kingdom to serve as a floating polling station for German and Austrian citizens living in the UK. On 10 April 1938, 1,978 voters (including 806 Austrians) were ferried from Tilbury, east of London. Only ten voted against annexation. Photo: Hitler voting for the 1938 election to the Grossdeutscher Reich.

April 10, 1938: "Parliamentary" elections were held in Nazi Germany. At the same time a referendum on the Anschluss was held. The result was reported as 99% in favor. These were the final elections to the Reichstag during Nazi rule.

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Following the invasion of the USSR in June 1941, the camp held Soviet prisoners of war. These included 101 Uzbek prisoners brought to display to the Dutch for propaganda purposes. When they arrived in Amersfoort they were paraded through town in an attempt to show the population of Amersfoort how primitive and barbaric the communists were. Many civilians from the surrounding area secretly tried to give bread and other food to the starving prisoners. While incarcerated, twenty-two of the Uzbek POWs died of dysentery, starvation and torture. Two POWs were ordered killed by the Dutch camp doctor, a Nazi sympathizer and collaborator. The skulls of these two victims were placed as trophies on his desk. Along the Appelweg, outside the camp, stood a large tree. Its branches leaned over the barbed wire inside the camp grounds. Many prisoners dreamed of grabbing the branches and catapulting themselves across the fence making a clean escape. That tree stood for many years. Even after it had died it remained as a silent witness to the atrocities that were committed in Camp Amersfoort. Unfortunately, on 25 October 2000 nature took its toll and toppled that tree. Many former inmates looked upon that day as a day of mourning because the tree was viewed by them as a symbolic monument. You see, in January of 1945, just beyond that tree, the Nazis buried a man alive. His name was Joop Swaanswijk, a radio operator. Joop also was a member of the Council of Resistance the R.V.V. - de Raad Van Verzet. After the war he received proper burial. When the camp was liberated, between 475 and 500 survivors were counted. photo: Two of the 101 Uzbek pow's. No one survived.

April 9, 1942: 77 Soviet (all from Uzbekistan) POWs were executed by the SS at Camp Amersfoort. They were killed receiving fatal neck shots. The Uzbek prisoners were used for propaganda purposes, to show how primitive and barbaric the communists were.

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Otto and Elise Hampel were a working class German couple who created a simple method of protest against Nazism in Berlin during the middle years of World War II. They wrote postcards denouncing Hitler's government and left them in public places around the city. After learning that Elise's brother had been killed in action, the Hampels undertook efforts to encourage resistance against the Third Reich. From September 1940 until their arrest in autumn 1942, they hand-wrote over 287 postcards, dropping them into mailboxes and leaving them in stairwells in Berlin, often near Wedding, where they lived. The postcards urged people to refuse to cooperate with the Nazis, to refrain from donating money, to refuse military service, and to overthrow Hitler. Although nearly all the postcards were brought to the Gestapo, it took two years for the authorities to find the couple. The Hampels were denounced in autumn 1942 and were arrested. Otto declared to the police that he was happy to be able to protest against Hitler and the Third Reich. At trial at the Volksgerichtshof, the Nazi "People's Court", the Hampels were convicted of Wehrkraftzersetzung (corroding military strength) and of "preparing for high treason". Photo: One of the Hampels' postcards; in the middle is a postage stamp bearing Hitler's face, scrawled with the words "worker murderer"

April 8, 1943: Otto (45) and Elise (39) Hampel were executed by guillotine in Plötzensee Prison, Berlin for high treason. They had written postcards denouncing Hitler and had left them in public places around the city.

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Benito #Mussolini was shot by Violet Gibson, sister of Lord Ashbourne, but the bullet only grazed his nose. Mussolini had stepped out to the street in Rome after an opening speech to the Seventh International Congress of Surgery, where he had praised surgeons who had treated him when he was wounded during World War One, and joked that Gibson had "chosen the wrong moment" to shoot him since he was in the presence of "several hundred of the greatest surgical scientists in the world." Across Italy, three staffers of anti-Fascist newspapers were murdered, others were beaten, and property was smashed in nighttime "reprisal" attacks following the attempt on Mussolini's life. Photo: Benito Mussolini after the assignation attempt.

April 7, 1926: In Rome, Italian Premier Benito #Mussolini was shot by Violet Gibson, sister of Lord Ashbourne, but the bullet only grazed his nose.

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Ursula stern, recalled in her post testimony the following: "My Parents hiding place was discovered and they were deported to Auschwitz where they died. When our hiding place was discovered, I was sent to Utrecht prison, from there we were transferred to Amstelveen and, finally to Camp Vught where we suffered a lot from repetitive roll calls. Later we were transferred to Westerbork, the gathering place of Dutch Jews, and we remained there for one week. In April 1943, we left for Poland, this journey was dreadful. When we reached Sobibor a selection took place: young girls were placed on the side and the others, including children, were immediately send to the gas chambers. We were given postcards. "Write to your families that you have arrived safely". I wrote a card to some Dutch friends, it reached its destination, and I found it after the war. Sobibor was hell. Selma Wijnberg, the other known survivor from this transport recalled: In 1942, I was arrested with my family and interned in Westerbork. We were 8,000 prisoners, and the German officers announced that were going to work in Poland or the Ukraine, and we were to take with us our shoes, clothes. Letters were arriving from Wladowa, confirming that life was pleasant in Poland. Later I knew it was a lie, as the prisoners were forced to sign printed postcards. A letter from Levie Sluijzer also remained. He did not survive Sobibor, but wrote about the long travel by train from Westerbork to Sobibor and hid his letter in the cattle car where it was retrieved when the train returned to Westerbork for transport #7.

April 6, 1943: The 6th transport for #Sobibor left #Westerbork, it consisted of 2020 deportees. Most of the deportees were murdered upon arrival. There are only two known survivors from this transport. A letter from Levie Sluijzer remained. He did not survive.
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- It is not known how many of the 37 deportees to #Ravensbrück survived. - Out of the 625 Jews who arrived at #Auschwitz from Mechelen 206 men and 146 women were admitted into the camp. The other 273 people were immediately murdered. One hundred and forty one people survived this transport. - When the transport reached #Theresienstadt on April 7, it was entered into the ghetto records as XXIV/5, the Roman numerals denoting the Netherlands. 26 Jews from this transport survived. From all other transports that day it is unknown how many people managed to survive.... Photo: Block 61 Buchenwald concentration camp.

April 5, 1944: 5 transports departed #Westerbork in one deportation train. To #Auschwitz, #BergenBelsen, #Theresienstadt, #Ravensbrück and #Buchenwald.

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Photo: Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. walking across the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis April 3, 1968.

April 4, 1968: At 6:01 p.m, as he stood on the motel's second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot.

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April 3, 1946: An article appeared on the front page of the Dutch newspaper "Het Parool" (The Netherlands). It brought the attention of publishers to the existence of a diary, written by a teenage girl who had died in the Nazi concentration camp #Bergen-Belsen.
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The 5th transport from #Westerbork to #Sobibor arrived in Sobibor on April 2nd. There were 1255 Jewish men, women and children cramped aboard the cattle-trains. Most were murdered within hours of arrival. In this class photo, taken sometime in the second half of the 1930s, two girls, with dark hair and their arms crossed, can be seen sitting in the center. On the left is Ella Lina (Ellie) and to the right is her sister Betsy. They lived with their parents Zadok de Wolf, and Frieda Schlockoff and their little brothers Emanuel, Rudolf and Willy in Amsterdam. Sometime in 1941, Zadok de Wolf entrusted family photos, including this class photo of the two girls, to the family of Leo Künstlinger for safekeeping. The entire de Wolf family was deported to Sobibor and murdered there upon arrival. Willy was 1, Rudolf was 2, Emanuel was 5, Ellie was 7, Betsy was 9, Frieda was 31 and Zadok was 37 years old. Zadok's mother had passed away a few weeks after the Germans invaded The Netherlands, his father, 2 brothers and 3 sisters together with all their spouses and children were murdered in #Auschwitz between 1942 and 1945.

April 2, 1943: Upon arrival at #Sobibor extermination camp the entire "de Wolf" family of 7 is murdered.

Zadok de Wolf (37), his wife Frieda Schlockoff (31) and their children Willy 1, Rudolf 2, Emanuel 5, Ellie 7 (left in photo), Betsy 9 (right).

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Photo: Period postcard from a Heinrich Hoffmann photo showing Adolf Hitler's prison cell in Landsberg fortress, where he was emprisoned for 11 months until 20 December 1924

April 1, 1924: Adolf Hitler was found guilty of treason and sentenced to five years in prison in the Beer Hall Putsch trial. He was taken to Landsberg Prison and was given a large and comfortable room with a fine view.

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Not long after Adolf Hitler came to power at the end of January 1933, censorship authorities of the Nazi state began to significantly impede the work of the Vossische Zeitung. Numerous journalists who were out of favor with them, including many Jews, were expelled from their positions. A few weeks later, the Ullstein publishing house, including the newspapers it still published at the time, was Aryanized and taken over by the Franz Eher Verlag, the publishing house of the Nazi Party. When the National Socialist Schriftleitergesetz (editor law) came into force on 1 January 1934, Nazification of the German press was enforced, and publishers lost their influence on reporting and on the composition of editorial offices. photo: last edition of the Vossische Zeitung

March 31, 1934: The respected German newspaper Vossische Zeitung published its final edition after 230 years of existence. An editorial stated that "in a certain sense it is the victim of the crisis that affects the entire German press."

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The 5th transport from #Westerbork to #Sobibor left on Tuesday, March 30. There were 1255 men, women and children aboard and no one survived the war. The train arrived in Sobibor on April 2nd, 1943. One of the victims was Bernhard Hellmann (39). He was in hiding in Ede, where he thought he was safe but was betrayed nonetheless. His son Paul, in hiding on another address, survived the war. During the trial of camp-guard John (Iwan) Demjanjuk, Paul Hellmann was one of the co-prosecutors. He spoke on behalf of his father. John Demjanjuk, was a Trawniki and Nazi camp guard at Sobibor extermination camp, Majdanek, and Flossenbürg. Photo: Photograph of Trawniki guards at Sobibor, taken in 1943. This was not seen publicly until January 2020, when it was one of numerous photos from Sobibor newly exhibited in Berlin. #Demjanjuk was "inconclusively identified" as the guard in the middle of the front row.

March 30, 1943: The 5th transport from #Westerbork to #Sobibor left on Tuesday, March 30. There were 1255 men, women and children aboard and no one survived the war. The train arrived in Sobibor on April 2nd, 1943.

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The "Law Concerning the Sentence and Execution of the Death Penalty" was issued in Germany to permit the death penalty by hanging for certain offenses committed on or after January 30, when Adolf Hitler had become chancellor. This followed the "Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State", better known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, which President Hindenburg had issued on Hitler's advice on February 28. The offense attracting the death penalty under the new law included arson of public buildings; it was dubbed the "Lex van der Lubbe" because it permitted the execution of Marinus van der Lubbe for the burning of the Reichstag building in February, even though arson had not been a capital offense at the time. It would also be used to justify the executions of any persons who had been arrested for treason in the first two months of Nazi rule. Photo: Marinus van der Lubbe (lower left) stands before the tribunal at the opening of the proceedings of the Reichstag Fire trial in Leipzig (September 21, 1933).

March 29, 1933: A Law was issued in Germany to permit the death penalty by hanging for certain offenses committed on or after January 30. The law was created so Marinus van der Lubbe could be executed for the burning of the Reichstag building.

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Photo: Adolf Hitler with Paul von Hindenburg (left) and Werner von Blomberg (middle) at Potsdam, March 21, 1933.

March 28, 1931: In an attempt to reduce political violence, Germany's President Paul von Hindenburg used Article 48 to pass an emergency decree curtailing freedoms of speech and assembly, as well as privacy rights.

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The young orphan carried a note upon arrival bearing Owen Pratt’s name. “The girl, too young to speak, was of course unable to explain the note she had with her,” reported the Dutch paper "Nieuwsblad van het Zuiden", citing the Sunday Express. The pilot was tracked down, and it turned out he was no stranger to the child. Her parents had sheltered Pratt for weeks after he was shot down over the Netherlands the previous year. He reached the ground wounded but alive and, thanks to their help, avoided falling into German hands. “He owed his freedom to the couple who took him into their home, provided him with food and shelter, and hid him from the ever-watchful Gestapo,” the newspaper wrote. “While he waited in this hospitable home, he befriended his hostess’s baby.” The pilot often played with the girl, and a strong bond formed between them. This note has now secured the child’s future. Eventually, with the help of the resistance, Pratt was able to leave his hiding place and safely return to England. The couple who had helped him, however, paid with their lives—they were executed by the Germans. Neighbors then took in the orphaned girl. “They knew of Officer Pratt’s secret refuge and were the ones who gave the little girl the note she carried to England. This note has now secured her future.” Owen Pratt, originally from the British colony of New Zealand, will raise the child together with his wife, who is also of Dutch descent. Preparations are being made to send the girl to Pratt’s wife, who is currently in New Zealand. Photo: The first group of Dutch children arrived in England, 13 February 1945

March 27, 1945: British pilot Owen Pratt has adopted a two-year-old Dutch girl who arrived last month with the first group of evacuated children to England. Pratt owed his freedom to the parents, who were killed, of the child when he was shot down over The Netherlands.

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Photo: photo: #Eichmann (in uniform, fifth from the right) in front of the Jewish Congregation. Vienna, 18 March 1938.

March 26, 1942: Adolf Eichmann (department IV B4) began the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp with the transport of 1000 single women from Slovakia. They were registered in the women's camp and were kept for slave labour.

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March 25, 1934: Italian general elections were held in the form of a referendum on a single list of Fascist Party candidates.
They were the last elections held in Fascist Italy.

The Fascists won 99.84% approval in a foregone conclusion.

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Photo: Adolf Hitler at the opening of the Reichstag, Day of Potsdam, 21 March 1933.

March 24, 1933: Hitler described reports of maltreatment of Jews and Catholics to be "dirty lies" and said that "there has been no discrimination whatsoever between Jews or non-Jews or Christians, or any other creed or race."

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a transport deported from Camp Drancy in France, with 994 men, women and children. Also with destination to Sobibor (non survived). Amongst them was the Dutch artist Max van Dam (March 19, 1910 – c. September 20, 1943). Upon arrival in Sobibor Max van Dam was among the skilled workers selected while the remainder of the deportees were gassed or shot. Van Dam was set up in a studio for craftsmen where he created paintings for the camp staff. Sobibor survivor Kurt Ticho, who had befriended Van Dam in the camp, later recalled that deputy camp commander SS-Oberscharführer (Staff Sergeant) Gustav Wagner had ordered Van Dam to paint him based on the image on a postcard. Ticho testified during the Sobibor trial in Hagen that van Dam had painted portraits for the SS. Another survivor, Ursula Stern, mentioned in her post-war statements that Heinrich Himmler had posed for a portrait by Van Dam on an inspection tour of the extermination camp and its gassing operations. In the craftsmen's workshop Van Dam worked alongside Li van Staden, Moshe Goldfarb and the surviving gold smith Stanislaw Szmajzner. During much of his time in the camp Van Dam had a privileged position. When approximately 70 Dutch men assigned to slave-labour in the camp were murdered, following a betrayed escape attempt, he was exempt from these reprisal killings. SS-Oberscharführer Karl Frenzel stated in 1983 that he had kept one of the paintings by Van Dam but that his family had destroyed it, and everything else that connected Frenzel with the camps, after his 1962 arrest. He further stated that Van Dam had been killed in the revolt and that the paintings in Sobibor's staff quarters had been destroyed at the same time. Photo: Self-portrait Max van Dam at the age of 25. Collection Joods Historisch Museum Amsterdam.

March 23, 1943: On this Tuesday morning the 4th train to #Sobibor left Camp #Westerbork. Non of the 1250 men, women and children survived this extermination camp. At the same time, a transport deported from Drancy in France, with 994 Jews. Also to Sobibor (non survived).

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