After the war my wife and I returned to the Netherlands and visited what is left of Transit camp Westerbork. Iwan and Jettie were incarcerated in this camp until one day one of the death trains took them to Birkenau also. Today the former transit camp serves as a memorial, a permanent reminder of the ninety-three trains that left Westerbork for two of the several extermination sites located in Poland, Birkenau and Sobibor. Jettie and her brother Leo were deported together with their parents. They left on one of the earlier transports for Birkenau. The date was 5 October 1942. Mrs. Fischler and her children died in Birkenau. For them the date of death entered into the camp journal is 8 October 1942. Mr. Fischler must have died en route in the cattle car because his date of death is listed as 6 October 1942. Between 15 July 1942 and 3 September 1944 a total of sixty five trains left for Auschwitz II, Birkenau. An additional nineteen cattle car trains left for Sobibor, yet another extermination camp in Poland. Jewish inmates on the remaining trains were shipped to Theresienstadt and Bergen-Belsen respectively.

       No less than 104,000 Dutch Jews passed through transit camp Westerbork. Only 854 deportees sur- vived the ordeal of Auschwitz/Birkenau. I received documentation that Iwan and his younger brother Maurits (Mauni) were deported together with their mother Jo. Records discovered after the war indicate that all three perished on 23 September 1943. Their deportation train number for Birkenau was # 55. Father Machiel (Mau) had been deported earlier, perhaps on train # 50. He perished on 28 February 1943 as camp records indicate. Iwan's older brother Jonas (Jonny) is listed as missing. Meticulously kept records were the pride and joy of camp commandant Gemmeker and his efficient staff. These records included the number of transports, the number of victims on each transport, and their ultimate destination. Also the camp population was recorded for any given date. People were listed by family name, by first name, by domicile, by date of birth, by occupation, and by date of departure. Finally also by the date of death following arrival at either Birkenau or Sobibor, or another place of evil for that matter. According to official camp records none of the van Oosten family nor any of the Fischlers survived.

       It is difficult to forget Jettie's face as she pressed against her mom at the Umschlagplatz - Gathering Place that particular afternoon. It inspired me to write a poem about her. However, that poem really is about all the Jewish children who were deported, exterminated, or in any other way suffered immensely at the hands of the Nazis.

       Our daughter Mirjam, an accomplished musician, singer and composer, put these words to music. Mirjam recorded the song on her third album, which is entitled: "Take Heart." Emotionally it still effects me, even to this day, when I think of the six million who are no more and all those who could have been yet are not.

       There remains one final note to this drama. On one of our trips back home Vonnie and I visited the store Iwan's father once built and owned. The location of the store is the same. True to tradition the present owner still sells bedding and furniture. No doubt he continued to build on the excellent reputation once held by the former proprietor, Jonas van Oosten. Our hearts ware filled with expectation as we entered the store. I had hoped to find answers to the question burning in my heart: Did any of the van Oosten family survive? If so, was Iwan one of them? This was the cold response I received:

       Anger rose up within me when I heard those chilling words. I went outside for fresh air and wondered, has anything changed? Clearly, for some it had not.

       I often think of Iwan with whom I shared many of my boyhood adventures. In my mind I again walk the final steps with him wishing I could somehow alter the course of history. Alas, I fail in this. I remain while Iwan, Jettie and all the others are no more.

       Together with my wife Vonnie I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau in the summer of 1997. Quietly we stood in Auschwitz II, camp Birkenau, near the gas chambers and crematoria where Iwan and Jettie were murdered. It finally brought closure to a painful memory out of my youth as I now had the opportunity to recite Kaddish for Iwan and Jettie and for many of Assen's finest citizens.