On 15th April 1945, Bergen-Belsen was liberated by the British Army. Only days before though between 6th-10th April 1945 3 transports left the concentration camp with around 7000 Jews on board. Some of them were children. In fact, some of these children were former Kindertransportees – they had first escaped from Germany and Austria on the Kindertransports to the Netherlands and then they were tragically deported. Rescue did not always mean safety or freedom for the children as they came into direct contact with the Nazis yet again. Some had lived in the Netherlands for 3 years before they were deported. Thus, they had lived under the Nazi regime for another 2 years in their new host nation after the invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. Their incarceration in Westerbork came at different times and the dates of their transports to Bergen-Belsen were also different but their fates collided with one another when they were sent on their final transport – not to life but to death. Miraculously though many of them survived. For these Kindertransport children they would still be journeying (first into exile and then forcibly deported) right up until the end of the Second World War. However, their final transport never reached its destination.

At least 33 former Kindertransport children who found refuge in the Netherlands were on board the third transport. While 31 of them were liberated by the Red Army on 23rd April 1945, two of them perished. There were several sets of Kindertransport siblings on board too. In the chaos of the final days of the war the Nazis were still intent on murdering as many Jews as possible. As British troops got closer and closer to Bergen-Belsen, the 3 transports were preparing to leave. The first left on 6th April 1945 and was later liberated in Magdeburg by the Americans. The second left on 9th April 1945 and mainly consisted of Hungarian Jews. This transport arrived at Terezin. The third and final transport on 10th April 1945 (different sources have different date ranges for when the transports left) crossed paths with the second transport several times before coming to........

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