Abstract

The persecution and annihilation of the Jews has been, and rightly continues to be the subject of a great number of varied publications. Against this historical background the Shoah of the Dutch Jews in particular has come to be known, unfortunately, as one of the more successful operations of the Nazi Endlösung. Its destructive consequences are now part of a national-historical trauma for the Dutch, and writers, historians and intellectuals have been seeking suitable and effective expression ever since the immediate postwar years. The present contribution seeks to examine some of the testimonials and ego documents, with particular emphasis on two central figures in the registration and transmission of the memory of the transit camp of Westerbork, the antechamber to Auschwitz: Philip Mechanicus and Etty Hillesum.