The Fate of the People in Hiding

“I can no longer talk about how I felt when my family arrived on the train platform in Auschwitz and we were forcibly seperated from each other.”

Otto Frank, 1979

Every man and woman receives a number, which is tatooed on their arm. All their heads are shaven bald. They receive prison-camp clothes, because they are not allowed to keep their own clothes. The men are placed in one part of
the camp, the women in another. Otto Frank, Fritz Pfeffer and Hermann and Peter van Pels manage to stay together. Most prisoners have to perform heavy labor digging trenches. Peter is luckier: he is assigned to the camp post office. Guards and non-Jews may receive mail. Because Peter handles the packages that arrive, he is sometimes able to “arrange” a bit of extra food.

Selections

Everyday there are selections: prisoners who are too sick or weak to work are sent directly to the gas chamber to be killed. It is a few weeks after their arrival and Hermann van Pels, exhausted, is no longer capable of working. He is then gassed as well. Otto Frank and Peter van Pels witness this: “I will never forget that moment when the 17-year-old Peter van Pels and I saw a group of selected men. Peter’s father was among the group. They were marched away. Two hours later a cart with their clothes on it went by.”