The Germans left the drawing up of these lists to Suskind and his colleagues, who
turned out to be daring experts in forging and covering the tracks of escapees.
Thus e.g. they would apply the following numerical sequence to the transport lists
for Westerbork: 182, 183, 184, 195, 196 …and so on. At times when the Germans
didn’t pay close attention or were ”loaded”, Suskind and his crew would just let
the files of the prisoners disappear.
It is not exactly known how many adults and children were saved by Suskind’s and
his helpers’ efforts, but they were many, and Alfred Strauss was most likely
one of them!
At the end of the war approximately 4500
Jewish children would live as hideaways with
Dutch fosterfamilies.
On December 15, 1943 Walter Suskind
together with his wife Johanna and their five
year old daughter Yvonne were deported to
the concentration camp Westerbork, and
from there via Theresienstadt to Auschwitz.
Johanna and Yvonne were selected to
die right away;
Walter Suskind died in February of 1945
somewhere on the death march from
Auschwitz to Germany.
