A female friend of the Werkendam family wrote the following account to her parents in 1943:
‘… but when the moment came to say goodbye, Miss Werkendam suddenly started crying so terribly. “Oh”, she said, “God does allow things to go very far sometimes”. But shortly afterwards when she had bidden a touching farewell to everyone (to me she said: “do remember me especially to your mother” twice, and “Oh how astonished your parents will be when you write to them about this”) they boarded the train and she suddenly started singing, so calmly and resolutely:
“A mighty fortress is our God,
A sword and shield victorious;
He breaks the cruel oppressor's rod
And wins salvation glorious.
The old evil foe,
Sworn to work us woe,
With dread craft and might
He arms himself to fight.
But will fly like chaff before us.”
Oh, when I saw Miss Werkendam’s face then, like an angel, no I shall never forget, she sang with her eyes raised and a praying heart, that’s how she sang, and it went right through everything. We sang too, but don’t ask how.
The train definitely waited until the verse was finished, then there was a brief silence, and then the train started moving – and then we heard, and it was the last thing we heard, Mr Werkendam calling out in that lovely deep voice, three times: “Till we meet again, till we meet again, till we meet again!” …
They wrote a letter (only one sheet is allowed) to her sister every 14 days. They are in reasonably good health, by the grace of God. Doortje has been put in a workshop. She has been put in charge of a number of children, and her husband has to do heavy labour. They see each other, eat together, but sleep separately, in three-high bunk beds, she sleeps in the top one. The food is not too bad but there is a particular shortage of bread and butter. …
On Sundays a Jewish missionary holds a church service; for the rest, she writes, “we live here as in a Jewish village, we even have Jewish police officers”, but she adds: “we live like sheep among wolves, since it is constantly ‘What will we get to eat, what will we get to drink, and how shall we clothe ourselves?’ And there is no ‘Moses’ to lead us.”
But they derive strength from God, and so … they do not despair. The singing at the station was known even in Drenthe and throughout the world, that Jewish Christians had testified to their faith. Four clergymen were there (we didn’t see them but they were there all the same) and four German soldiers stood crying behind a pillar at the station. Oh, we must hope, mustn’t we, that it may have brought a blessing? I shall close now. I shall post my first letter to them straight away, you should both do so too, they long for post …’.
Addition of a visitor of the website
In addition, a Jokos file (number 9545) on this family is at the Amsterdam Municipal Archive. Access is subject to authorization from the Stichting Joods Maatschappelijk Werk.