GENERAL REMARKS
The deportation period to be discussed now runs from 28 August to 12 December 1942, and is called the "Cosel period", because at that time a number of transports departing from the Netherlands (and also from France and Belgium) were not transported in their entirety to Auschwitz, but at the Cosel station (Upper Silesia, ± 80 K.M. west of Auschwitz), were split up, in such a way that the men, by the Germans considered suitable for work, were forced to leave the train at that station, to be put to work in surrounding labor camps, while those who remained behind on the train, i.e. the “non-arbeitsfähigen”, the non-employable, were sent on to Auschwitz.
The transports in which this separation (selection) took place were those which had left Westerbork on 28 and 31 August, 4, 7, 11 and 14 September, 2, 5, 16, 23 and 30 October, 2, 6, 10, 16, 24 and 30 November and 8 December 1942. The other transports in this period were directed in their entirety directly to Auschwitz.
OVERVIEWS DESTINATIONS
A). 1 representative in June/July 1943 (probably 26-6-43) from Fürstengrube in Graditz with ± 200 Dutchmen. Further route: Faulbrück, then 15 January 1944 to Ludwigsdorf; 22 July 1944 to Gross Rosen; 12 November 1944 to Leimeritz; 21 April 1945 to Theresienstadt.
B): 1 representative in October 1944 from unknown place to the Sportschule in Reichenbach (transport strength not specified). Further transport unknown.
C): 1 representative. in August 1943 from Fürstengrube in Graditz with 20 Dutchmen of the 31 August 1942 transport.Further route: February 1944 to Faulbrück; April 1944 back to Graditz; June 1944 back to Faulbrück and August 1944 to Langenbielau (Sportschule Reichenbach).
SOME MORE DETAILS
The fate of this transport is easier to oversee than that of the previous one of 28 August 1942, because it went almost entirely via the transit camp Niederkirch to Fürstengrube (arrival there about 10-9-1942) and then, the survivors in July/August 1943 were transferred to Graditz (ressort Gross Rosen). Only a few craftsmen and a "Sanitäter" (hospital soldier) went a separate route and ended up in Blechhammer.
Fürstengrube was an extremely bad camp until about May 1943, where many people died. After May 1943, conditions improved considerably.The number of dead in Fürstengrube (in the period from September 1942 to May 1943) is estimated differently by the survivors. What is certain is that it amounted to more than half of the transport. At most 100 survivors will have been transferred to Graditz.
The majority of these died during the typhus epidemic, which broke out in Graditz at the end of 1943/early 1944 (the time is given differently). The time of death in Fürstengrube or Graditz of about 50 men has so far been determined individually from the witness statements.
In spite of the clarity of the course of the transport, great uncertainty remains with regard to the place and date of death of most of the missing persons, of course mainly because it cannot be determined by name who left for Graditz and therefore also not, who died in the latter place or in Fürstengrube. Only the statement of representatives offers some guidance that at the end of 1943/beginning of 1944 the survivors went from Graditz to Faulbrück.
Finally, the majority of these survivors ended up in Langenbielau/Reichenbach and were liberated there in May 1945 or earlier placed on sickbay transport to Dörnhau or Dachau.
An exception is again a small group, which (probably in January 1944) went to Ludwigsdorf and from there in the autumn of 1944 largely via Gross Rosen to Leitmeritz and Theresienstadt. However, some of this group also seem to have ended up in Langenbielau. There is no other way than to formulate a conclusion with the help of the above fragmentary data.
It could be assumed that at the end of 1943/early 1944, when the majority of the survivors were transferred from Graditz to Faulbrück, the remaining group was sufficiently clear to assume that in witness statements included the names of those who belonged to this group.
If one assumes that the typhus epidemic will have died out in the first quarter of 1944, the conclusion must be that those whose death cannot be determined individually must be deemed to have died no later than the end of March 1944, either in Fürstengrube, or in one of the labor camps in the Gross Rosen resort (Silesia; Poland).
SUMMARY of the conclusions about the transport of 31 August 1942 from Westerbork.
The men who, according to the overview above, disembarked in Cosel, must, unless it appears otherwise, and with due observance of the general conclusions stated above, be considered to have died at the time and place as stated below:
Unless it appears otherwise in individual cases and with due observance of the general conclusions stated, the men of the transport of 31 August 1942 who disembarked in Cosel must be considered to have died: after 3 September 1942, but no later than 31 March 1944 in Fürstengrube (Upper Silesia, Poland) or in one of the labor camps in Lower Silesia (Poland).
Source: the Dutch Red Cross, publication Auschwitz volume 3 - the Cosel period, among others the pages 5, 6, 29, 42, 43 and addition III, conclusions.