SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 309
The RFSS [i.e. Himmler] wishes that throughout this year as
many Jews as possible are moved to the East.
2) Forthcoming trains to the east:
As a new Buna-plant is to be built at Auschwitz, the one in the
west having been destroyed in air-raids, a maximum number of Jews
from the west will be required primarily in the months of May and
June. It was agreed to move the Jews already assembled for transport
if possible during the first half of the month by combining several
trains, i.e. that the Westerbork camp [in Holland] will be emptied
rapidly. The aim is a figure of 8,000 during the month of May.
Arrangement will be made by the BdS, [945] Den Haag, in conjunction
with the RSHA.
3) The Hertogenbosch camp:
As the RSHA requests another 15,000 Jews, the point must be
reached as soon as possible when the detainees of the camp at Hertogenbosch
[in Holland] can also be made operative.”
In May of 1943 a total of 8,011 Dutch Jews were actually deported,
but the respective transports were directed to Sobibór. 946 The most logical
explanation of this riddle, which is also in keeping with the documents,
is that these convoys were part of the Ostwanderung referred to
above. The able-bodied were kept at Auschwitz, 947 with the remainder
of the deportees moving on to Sobibór.
This, however, is also true for the two Jewish transports which left
the camp at Drancy (in France) on 23 and 25 March 1943 (with 994 and
1,008 persons on board, respectively) and went directly to Sobibór instead
of Auschwitz. 948
Such a procedure would also explain the extremely low number of
able-bodied detainees at Sobibór, which the witnesses mention in connection
with the transports from the west, only a few dozen in each
convoy. Schelvis relates in fact that some 700 Dutch Jews were moved
to the Dorohucza labor camp of the SS as soon as they came to Sobibór.
949 He adds that on 15 June 1942 Dutch, German, and Slovak
945 Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD
946 In the month of June, there were 8,429 deportees, likewise moved to Sobibór. Overall
16,440 Jews were deported in May and June, among them 3,474 male and female children,
which means that among the remaining 12,996 adults, the 8,000 able-bodied detainees
requested by Auschwitz could be found.
947 In the case in question, the selected detainees were no doubt moved directly to the Monowitz
camp without being registered at Birkenau.
948 S. Klarsfeld, op. cit. (note 75), chronological table of the deportation trains.
949 J. Schelvis, op. cit. (note 71), p. 119.