“My God, are the doors really being shut now?” Hillesum asks herself on 24 August 1943. Through the small openings at the top of the train, she catches a glimpse of the passengers. She sees only heads and hands. Hands that will wave to the ones who will be left behind, when the train leaves. This time, the transport consists of more than a thousand innocent men, women, and children destined for Auschwitz-Birkenau where the train will arrive in three days. Between July 1942 and September 1944, 93 of such transports departed from Camp Westerbork for the camps in Eastern Europe.

Camp Westerbork was established by the Dutch government on 9 October 1939 as the Central Refugee Camp Westerbork. The place was to provide a safe haven for Jews who had fled Germany and Austria. But on 1 July 1942, the Germans took over control of the camp and Camp Westerbork fell under the Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD. Camp Westerbork continued under the official name Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Westerbork.

The organization of the camp that had already been introduced and put into motion by Jacques Schol, the first Westerbork commander, was taken over by the Germans. Security in the camp was tightened. The military police present in the camp together with the Ordedienst (OD; Jewish camp police) took care of surveillance of the interior. An SS unit was responsible for surveillance outside. Barbed wire and watchtowers gave the camp a different appearance.