Hijman Kanes was deported to Auschwitz with the transport of 2 October 1942, but was taken off the train at the intermediate stop in Cosel and put to work in one of the countless forced labor camps of the Reichsautobahn Direktion in Upper Silesia, including St. Annaberg, Bunzlau, Wiesau and Sakrau and many other labor camps, all of which were under the jurisdiction of the Gross Rosen ressort.
Hijman Kanes eventually ended up with the “Ak.” (Arbeitskommando (labor command)) Tränke, which probably only existed for a few months. On 14 December 1943, this camp was abolished, the prisoners first ended up in WIESAU and the surviving Jewish prisoners were transported to Ak.BUNZLAU in mid-April 1944.
Work was being done there on the construction of a highway, which involved heavy earthworks. There were only a few survivors who had something to say about this and there appeared to be little or no documentation (anymore). The Red Cross investigation also shows that a group of prisoners who belonged to the Arbeitskommando Bunzlau, probably including Hijman Kanes, were sent from Cosel and Sakrau to Tränke on 22 November 1942 (See the Publication Auschwitz part VI, p. 81 sub 6).
A few years after the war, on 1 February 1952, the Dutch Ministry of Justice, in accordance with the procedure and law, instructed the municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a death certificate for Hijman Kanes, which states that he died on 31 October 1943 in Tränke. (see death certificate 416 of 1 February 1952 from register A73-folio 71verso).
After the war, research by the Red Cross showed that, unless it appears otherwise in individual cases and with due observance of the general conclusions drawn, the men who disembarked in Cosel must be deemed to have died, with regard to the transport from Westerbork on 2 October. 1942: after 5 October 1942, but no later than 31 October 1943 in or in the vicinity of Schöppenitz. (Upper Silesia, Poland). (see Publication Auschwitz part III, Annex III Summary of the conclusions for the Cosel transports, A: General for all transports, paragraph B, sub 7, transport 2-10-42)
However, on Hijman Kanes' registration card of the Jewish Council, a note was made after the war in response to the testimony of the survivor (Mr. E. Benjamins from Groningen), who reported to the Red Cross in Amsterdam shortly after the war that Hijman Kanes had died in the Tränke camp in early 1943. Apparently, the information from Mr. Benjamins was not taken into account at the Ministry of Justice. The formalization of the date of death was therefore based on incomplete information. (source Raymund Schütz)