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JewishHistoryעברית

Westerbork–Sobibor deportations

Date
2 March 1943 – 20 July 1943Hebrew date: 25th of Adar I, 5703 – 17th of Tamuz, 5703
Location
Westerbork (Netherlands) to Sobibor (German-occupied Poland)Netherlands, Poland
Then part of
German-occupied Netherlands, General Government
Perpetrators
  • SS (State)
  • SS (State)
Killed (estimate)
33,000 – 34,313[1]Jews deported from Westerbork to Sobibor. USHMM and the Sobibor Foundation both give 34,313 deportees on 19 transports between 2 March and 20 July 1943. The Foundation, citing Dutch Red Cross transport lists, states that only 18 survived (15 women and 3 men) and that more than 33,000 were killed on the day they arrived.
Country

21% – 24% of the Jewish population of German-occupied Netherlands (c. 1940)[42]

Worldwide

0.3% – 0.31% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1945)[4]

Expelled (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Category
Genocide, Expulsion
Confidence
High

Summary

Between 2 March and 20 July 1943 the Germans ran 19 deportation trains from the Westerbork transit camp in the occupied Netherlands to the Sobibor killing center. USHMM records that 34,313 Jews were sent on those trains as part of the larger Westerbork deportations that began on 15 July 1942. Almost all were murdered on arrival; the Sobibor Foundation states that 18 people from these transports survived the war. SS officer Albert Konrad Gemmeker commanded Westerbork from October 1942 until April 1945.

Sources

  1. Westerbork. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  2. 3 – How many victims of Sobibor came from The Netherlands?. Stichting Sobibor
  3. The nineteen transports. Stichting Sobibor

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 11,000,000[4]c. 1945DellaPergola's core estimate for 1 May 1945, matching the 11 million figure he and the 1948–49 Year Book use for the immediate postwar world total.
  • German-occupied Netherlands: 140,245 – 156,817[42]c. 1940USHMM Losses: 140,245 in May 1940. AJYB Table X: 156,817 (1933). USHMM Netherlands article: January 1941 registration totaled 159,806 persons, including 19,561 from mixed marriages and some 25,000 refugees from the German Reich. Snapshot placed on the occupied polity (no populationOf to kingdom-of-the-netherlands).
  • General Government: 2,284,000 – 2,500,000[44]c. 1942Five-district General Government after Eastern Galicia (Lvov) was attached. Arad cites a German authorities' estimate of approximately 2,284,000 Jews and quotes Bühler at Wannsee on "approximately 2.5 million Jews" in the General Government. Żbikowski notes that Wannsee-era planning treated about 2.3 million Jewish inhabitants of five GG districts (with Białystok already included in that Aktion planning).

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
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  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
  13. Joseph Jacobs, Statistics. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  19. Игорь Виленский, Оценка сокращения численности еврейского населения Российской Империи и СССР (1897–1926). Еврейская Старина (2024)
  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
  22. Population of Israel/Palestine by Religion (1553–Present). Jewish Virtual Library (citing CBS, British Mandate publications, Bachi and others)
  23. US Jewish Population Pocket Demographics 2.0. Berman Jewish DataBank / Jewish Federations of North America (2018)
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  26. American Jewry, 1970 (NJPS 1971 article). American Jewish Year Book, via Berman Jewish DataBank
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  30. Stéphane Mechoulan, The Expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306: a modern fiscal analysis. University of Toronto Department of Economics working paper (2004)
  31. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Appendix A: Sources and Methodology for Section 2 (Jewish and total population in Germany-Austria and Poland-Lithuania). Authors' appendix PDF (citing Weinryb, Stampfer, Kupovetsky, Guggenheim, Toch, Battenberg, Israel) (2018)
  32. Kirsten E. Schulze, The Jews of Lebanon between Coexistence and Conflict. Internet Archive full text
  33. Jews in Arab Countries. American Jewish Year Book excerpt, Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1978)
  34. Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, The Farhud. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  37. Davis Trietsch, Die Juden der Türkei. Länder und Völker der Türkei, Heft 8 (Leipzig) (1915)
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  40. Andrzej Żbikowski, Extermination of Polish Jews. The genesis and course of Operation Reinhard. Żydowski Instytut Historyczny (Jewish Historical Institute)
  41. Yitzhak Arad, “Operation Reinhard” | Death Camps of Belzec, Sobibor & Treblinka. Yad Vashem
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  43. Bulgaria. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  46. France. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  47. Belgium. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  48. Norway. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  49. Denmark. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  51. Lithuania. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  53. Statistics of Jews (World and US Jewish Population). American Jewish Year Book 1946–1947, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1947)
  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  56. Jewish Populations in the Arab World. Jewish Virtual Library (citing Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2021 / AJYB 2023)
  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  58. Archives juives n°45/2 — Les Juifs d'Algérie. Archives Juives / Les Belles Lettres (2012)
  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
  65. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the Uzbek SSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)