Postcard from barracks 68 Westerbork
During the Second World War, approximately 107.000 people captured by the Germans, primarily Jews, were transported via the Westerbork transit camp in 93 trains to extermination camps in Eastern Europe. In total, only about 5.000 prisoners returned. A terrible chapter of the Second World War.
What did Mr. Goesmann write to Mr. Verburg? Here is the text written in pencil on the card:
Westerbork, August 25, 1943 (this was a Wednesday) Dear Mr. Verburg, By the time you receive this postcard, you and yours will most certainly have returned from your vacation trip, and we hope that you all enjoyed it. Were you certainly back in Laag-Soeren? We are doing well considering the circumstances; my wife, too, has been feeling completely healthy again for about 14 days, and I sincerely hope that it remains so. The joyous event will then take place in about 2 months. For more than 2 weeks we have not received a package from you; on Tuesday the 10th of this month, we received the last one from you. If you send one again, would you please include a pack of cigarettes again, to which I am so attached and for which I express my best thanks in advance. It has already been more than 2 months since we left Amsterdam; time flies, but I also hope that we will be back in Amsterdam in 2 months and that we will bring a child of peace with us. Do not forget us and thank you for everything! Our best regards to you, your wife, and Loukie. In another handwriting: Best regards, Ruth Goesmann.
Did Mr. and Mrs. Goesmann indeed return to Amsterdam with their child after two months? Or were they part of the 107.000 people who were deported? Or were they among the 5.000 survivors? Unfortunately, I have not found out. 
With the help of the Westerbork Camp Memorial Centre, the tragic fate of the Goldmann merchant family from Amsterdam has become clear.
Jones Gabriel was born in Westerbork camp on October 29, 1943. The Goldmann family left Westerbork for Theresienstadt on April 5, 1944. Jones Gabriel died there on September 13, 1944. Gerhard Goldmann (born February 5, 1905, in Cologne, Germany) was transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau on September 25, 1944. He died in Dachau on January 18, 1945. His wife, Ruth Lilienfeld (born May 31, 1908, in Rees, Germany), died on February 28, 1945.
The postcard is currently in the collection of the Museum in Westerbork.
It is good that this type of documentation is preserved for posterity. The content of the postcard is also dramatic in this sense because—although the couple was originally German and therefore should have known better—it still expresses optimism or hope.
The author of this text was born in 1932.