Buchenwald is named in the postwar account of the Secret Annex residents’ deportation as one stage in Auguste van Pels’s transfer after Auschwitz. Its place in that route makes the camp part of the history of the residents’ separation and persecution, although the account supplies no description of Buchenwald itself or of Auguste’s time there.

Place in the Deportation Record

After the eight people hiding in the Secret Annex were arrested, they were taken first to a prison in Amsterdam and then to Westerbork, the transit camp in the north of the Netherlands. On September 3, 1944, they left Westerbork in its last transport; three days later they arrived at Auschwitz. The later account traces the survivors of that initial deportation through different routes, establishing the broader context in which Buchenwald is mentioned.

Auguste van Pels’s Route

Auguste van Pels was transported from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen, and then to Buchenwald. On April 9, 1945, she was transferred onward to Theresienstadt; the account says she apparently went to another concentration camp after that. Buchenwald is therefore one link in a succession of forced transfers, not the final known destination in the account of her route.

Uncertain Fate and Narrative Significance

The record states that Auguste van Pels did not survive, but that the date of her death is unknown. It gives no further information about her circumstances at Buchenwald or identifies where she died. This restrained itinerary preserves what can be stated about her movement while marking the limits of what was known: the camp is firmly part of her route, but her final destination and death remain unresolved in the account.