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Holocaust & German Persecutions
Lot 886:
This deportation list was recently found among all kinds of SD (Sicherheitsdienst) documents in the Netherlands and it contains the names of deported Dutch prominent figures from concentration camp Schoorl in the Netherlands to concentration camp Buchenwald in Germany. The list dates from September 19, 1941 and contains the 42 names of the Dutch who were deported to Buchenwald on August 23, 1941. The list includes their name, position and place of residence. From 1940, the Dutch had already been imprisoned in Buchenwald, just like a number of Belgians. The first group concerns hostages, 217 men and 15 women, in retaliation for the imprisonment of 2400 German men in the Dutch East Indies. The men went to Buchenwald and the women to Ravensbrück. The hostages were treated slightly better than the other prisoners, as they were classified as prisoners of war, they were also separated from the rest in a separate corner surrounded by barbed wire. In the summer of 1940, ten were released, but two new hostages were returned. Despite pressure from the Germans, the captured Germans in the Dutch East Indies were not released. Reichskommissar of the Netherlands Seyss-Inquart then compiled a new list of names that had to be arrested. On October 7, 1940, a group of 116 hostages were rounded up and taken to Buchenwald. Among these were some prominent Dutch politicians, such as the later minister Dr. Willem Drees, professors, artists and intellectuals. Because of their separate status, that they could move fairly freely, these Dutchmen witnessed the ill treatment of the other prisoners, especially the arrival of Dutch Jews they had to watch helplessly. There were also eight Jews among the Dutch hostages, and they lived every day after that in fear of being sent to the camp ‘the other side’.
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