I'd wanted to be a nurse since I was five years old
so we agreed, even though I wasn't even 17 yet,
but we thought it could help us escape the war,
or at least I wouldn't be taken away.
That's how I got into the hospital.
And after I'd been there for half a year or so,
on February 26th they took everyone in the hospital away.
What year was that? -'43.
All the patients, all the old people, all the nurses, all the personnel.
It was horrible. -Were they all Jews?
Everyone. It was a Jewish hospital.
Do you remember... -I remember it
because I tried to jump from the truck
but they held me back, they didn't want me to jump,
they were afraid I'd break my legs.
What do you remember about it? -I remember that.
How did they make the patients board? What do you remember about it?
It wasn't like when I... when we arrived later in Sobibor.
I don't remember them beating us
to get us to board the trucks. I don't remember that.
They were Dutch, if I'm not mistaken,
but bad Dutchmen. There were such people.
Collaborators. -Of course.
Were there many trucks?
I don't remember that either.
I guess we were so distraught and self-absorbed,
and besides, I didn't manage to jump,
so it was a blow.
Where was your family when you were put on the truck?
At home. They didn't know, they only heard afterwards.
You never saw them again? -No.
Where did they take you?
Straight to Westerbork.
Westerbork is a transit camp. -Where?
In a part of Holland...
where they gathered the Jews from all over Holland
and sent them on, immediately.
They wanted to send me on right away, after three days, I think,
but I had an uncle there who had connections
and he knew the ins and outs there
so he told me: "Fietje..."
My name is Sophie but in Dutch they say Fietje.
"Try to stay as far back as possible."
Meaning that the train might be full, and it was.
So I stayed for another week, and the next week they took me away.
You were in the transit camp for only a week? -Only a week.
Do you remember anything about the camp? -No. Nothing.
You waited? -Yes, we just waited.
What happened a week later?
A week later they took us to Sobibor.
Straight to Sobibor. -How?
I say "us," but we weren't together,
just a random group of people. In a cattle car,
it was horrific,
I got a deep scratch in my forehead,
and the journey was horrible
because the car was full of old and disabled people
so it was absolutely awful.
How long did the journey take? -Two days, I think.
And you were locked in the cars the whole time? -Yes.
Was there food? Drink? -I don't remember. I suppose...
The Germans were always tricking us
so we came with parcels full of clothing.
Did you think... -Yes, as if we were going to a resort,
so we had clothes and probably food, too,
so at the time we didn't suffer so badly from hunger.
I don't remember.
You knew nothing about Sobibor? -Nothing.
What it was? -Nothing.
How long were you in Sobibor?
I'll just mention that the minute we got to Sobibor
they took us out of the carriages by force and beat us,
they threw us out.
I was healthy so I wasn't hurt,
but the elderly and disabled people...
must have broken parts of their bodies.
And they put them straight onto...
We called it a trolley.
A trolley is a kind of cart.
They threw all of them onto the trolleys together
and sent them out of the...
We never saw them again. -Where did they take them?
To the gas chambers, apparently.
Because they had gas chambers there, too, as I understood it.
That's when you began to realize
that it was no resort. -We began to, yes.
And they took away our things on the spot. Every single thing.
They took all our clothing
and stripped us and left us with nothing.
I still had, and I only lost it at the end of the war,
I had a family photo here.
I don't know how I got it
because I'm sure I didn't wear it to work at the hospital,
but I had it,
and they only took it away at the end of the war.
I was able to keep it for a long time.