I have only few direct memories of my stay in Westerbork and Theresienstadt. Most of it has been completely erased, but certain impressions have remained, plus my mother’s stories. From Westerbork, I only remember the horrible dirty red cabbage that we apparently often had to eat. I has given me a lifelong aversion to red cabbage.
I also remember the beautiful lupins that bloomed there. It is curious that I remember so little of that year when the most terrible things happened close to us. My salvation was a note from Obersturmfüher Gemmeker, which I still have, the text I don’t remember, but it ends with ….. das Sie (sic) nicht nach dem Osten abgeschoben warden. (that you will not be deported to the east). That word “abtgeschoben”! He has always denied knowing anything about the death camps. But Theresienstadt is also located “im Osten”(in the East).
The “journey” in closed cattle wagons to Theresienstadt has also been completely erased, with one exeption. The train stopped somewhere in Germany and we were allowed to get off the train. Wild strawberries grew, which I picked. My mother then thought about fleeing with me, but after a long hesitation she did not dare.
In Theresienstad my mother had to perfom forced labour. At first with the “glimmer splitting”. Glimmer is a mineral which occurred in layers. It was used as isolation for capacitors. She also had to work in the SS laundry and at last with the building of a gas chamber.
I was alone, the whole day. There were hardly any children. I was taken care of by uncle and aunt Schoenbeck. That were rich pharmacists from Berlin. I particularly liked it with uncle Paul Schoenbeck. He told me stories, taught me songs, everything in German. He was a father and grandfather at the same time. After the war, they lived in Laren for a few more years, then emigrated – unfortunately – to America.