The transport of 23 February 1943, the last of the so-called “spring transports” in 1943.
(The spring transports of 1943 took place between 11 January and 23 February 1943. The autumn transports of 1943 took place between 24 August and 16 November 1943. The intervening period is known as the “Sobibor period).
A specification of this transport reads as follows:
Transport date (departure from the Netherlands in 1943): February 23, 1943
Total number of deportees in this transport: 1101
Of which the number of deported men: 413
The number of deported women: 688
Persons over 50 years: 728
Children under 16 years: 99
Persons aged 16-50 from which generally employed persons were selected: 274
Number of men in the age group of 16-17 years: 4
Number of men in the age group 18-35 years: 57
Number of men in the age group of 36-40 years: 15
Number of men in the age group 41-50 years: 43
Number of women in the age group of 16-17 years: 6
Number of women in the age group 18-35 years: 54
Number of women in the age group of 36-40 years: 22
Number of women in the age group 41-50 years: 73
From this transport, 2 men (aged 18 and 22 respectively at the time of their deportation) and 2 women (aged 29 and 32 at the time) returned.
From their statements, which are contradictory on some points, it must be concluded that a number of young men and women were selected for employment during the usual selection upon arrival of the transport at Auschwitz.
Their numbers are stated differently. For example, this is how one of the surviving women spoke of 30 men and 30 women, and by a male survivor of 57 men and no women.
Due to the lack of data regarding women in the camp administration, the stated number of 30 female employees cannot be verified.
It is also not possible to reconstruct a matricule series. Therefore, although by eliminating the mothers of the (49) children under 16 years of age from the transport list, it would theoretically be possible to determine which 30 of the approximately 80 women assigned to the transport (see the table on page 23) are probably responsible for are eligible for employment, it is preferable to note the employed persons individually from the statements of survivors (also from other transports), and to determine the times of their death separately on the basis of the information stated about them.
All other women, together with the children and the older, sick and weak-looking men, were assumed to have been killed by gassing immediately after the selection on arrival, so on or about 26 February 1943.
Regarding the men employed, the above figure of 57 may not be far from the truth.
The matricule series known with certainty runs from 104043 (D) to 104080 (S), and therefore includes 38 numbers, while from the corresponding nature of the mutations mentioned in the "Number Dead Book" it can be deduced that for the D and there were at least 17 numbers after the S. It can be assumed that approximately 60 men have matriculated. The ages of the employees known from the administration and the letter lists are, with 3 exceptions, in the group of 18-41 years.
Since, according to the table on page 23, the total number of men of that age assigned to the transport is 72, and the loss of weight of the sick and weak must be taken into account (names only known insofar as they have been provided by survivors) it is considered statistical it is most justified to assume that all men in the stated age group, unless it appears otherwise in individual cases, should be counted as employed. The statistical error is then estimated to be at most ± 10%.
According to the statements of the survivors, from the camp administration, and from the letters received, almost all men selected for work were employed in Auschwitz and Birkenau. Only 3 of them appear to have ended up in Monowitz, 1 in Golleschau and 1 in Kobior (a small outer command of Auschwitz).
Letters have been received from 1 woman (who has returned) and from 13 men, most recently:
on 7 September 1943 from 6 men from Birkenau
on 8 November 1943 from 5 men from Birkenau
on 7 April 1944 from 1 woman from Birkenau
on 7 April 1944 from 1 man from Auschwitz
on 7 April 1944 from 1 man from Monowitz.
The dates of death of 25 of the employed men are known from the "Number Death Book". Of these are in: March 1943: 13 – in April 1943: 8 – in May 1943: 3 and in June 1943: 1
Since these figures show that the greatest mortality occurred before the end of April 1943, it has been assumed on statistical grounds that the employed men of this transport, about whom no individual data are known, also died no later than 30 April 1943.
Source: the archive of the Dutch Red Cross, publication “Auschwitz IV” of October 1943 – the “spring transports” of the deportation transports in 1943 to Auschwitz, pages 39, 40 and 41 as well as pages 23 and 63 Appendix 1, the summary of the conclusions of the spring transport of 23 February 1943.