Westerbork, Netherlands, Fritz Grünberg papers of Transit Camp, 1942-1945 (USHMM)

Source Information

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Westerbork, Netherlands, Fritz Grünberg papers of Transit Camp, 1942-1945 (USHMM) [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2021.

This collection was indexed by World Memory Project contributors from the digitized holdings of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2015.468.1 Fritz Grünberg papers. For more information about this collection, click on the collection title above to access the USHMM’s catalog record, or email [email protected].

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Original data:

Fritz Grünberg papers. Series 2015.468.1. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.

About Westerbork, Netherlands, Fritz Grünberg papers of Transit Camp, 1942-1945 (USHMM)

History of the Collection

Fritz Grünberg was born on 15 December 1911 in Rheine, Germany. He was a businessman and moved to Amsterdam around 1937. After the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, Fritz joined the Jewish Council (Joodse Raad) in Amsterdam. In July of 1943, we was sent to work at the Westerbork transit camp to register the property of new prisoners. He became the leader in what was known as the Contact Afdeling (Contact Division) who ,despite working in the camp, claimed to have worked to keep people from deportation, sabotage trains, smuggle mail and photographs out of the camp, and falsify christening documents.

Westerbork was established in 1939 by the Dutch as a refugee camp for German Jews who had fled Nazi persecution. After the Nazi invasion in May of 1940, German officials took over Westerbork and transformed it into a transit camp for Dutch Jews. It was a collection point for Jews in the Netherlands before they were deported to killing centers and concentration camps in the east. More than 100,000 Jews passed through Westerbork. Most were deported to Sobibor and Auschwitz-Birkenau where they were murdered. Only 5,000 Jews who passed through Westerbork survived.

Using this Collection

The index may contain the following information:

  • Full name
  • Gender
  • Birthdate
  • Birth Place
  • Residence date
  • Residence Place
  • Occupation

    • More information about the Westerbork Transit Camp is available in the online Holocaust Encyclopedia.