The man who visited Trudel van Reemst-De Vries in the hospital of Westerbork was Werner Stertzenbach, who – unknown to Trudel – was connected to the group of Ter and Nol in the Oosteinde Home. Werner wanted to save her, prevent Trudel being deported. To understand whether and how this was possible, we take a closer look at this camp.

Westerbork was located on heathland near old peat fields in the eastern province of Drenthe and surrounded with young woods. The soil was soggy, the climate poor. Dutch military police guarded the camp under supervision of the SS. It was a chaotic collection centre for deported Jews. Often thousands were forced to live in an area that was far too small to hold all the inmates, squeezing them into wooden barracks. They were awaiting transport to camps in Eastern Europe. The waiting time could vary, as the transport train couldn't take all the prisoners at once. Some of them tried to prolong their stay, others hoped for cancellation of their transport, most tried and hoped in vain. A nervous tension held the inmates in its grip, especially on the eve of the transport train leaving the camp.

Jewish refugees had been incarcerated in Westerbork before the deportation started in July 1942, several of them for more than three years. Before the war, Westerbork had been a Central Refugee Camp, where some of the Germans Jews who were interned in the Netherlands were taken. After May 1940 they had been joined by dozens of others, who were sent there by the German police. These alte Lagerinsassen (veteran camp inmates) had been given specific tasks, for example, in the administration building or maintenance department. During the occupation of the Netherlands the German Jews were often the first targets of National Socialist persecution, but this also resulted in some of them, such as the alte Lagerinsassen of Westerbork, gaining positions with seemed to offer some power. It enforced the distrust between Dutch and German Jews. However, some German Jews, such as Werner Stertzenbach – the man who visited Trudel in hospital – used their positions to help others.

Life in Westerbork is difficult to understand from a present-day point of view, but you get a glimpse from a series of poems composed by Rosa ‘Rosey’ Pool, a woman from the Oosteinde group in Amsterdam.