[Note: The link to the Huffington Post for this article was “not working” last night. It can again be read here. Sorry for the problem.]
On September 3, 1944, the last train carrying Dutch Jews to Nazi extermination camps left the transit camp Westerbork, the Netherlands, destination Auschwitz.
Aboard the train, along with a thousand other Dutch Jews, was Louis de Wind, the father of a cousin of mine, Loekie de Wind.
Recently, Loekie shared with me the letter her father wrote to her and her mother as the train was speeding across the Dutch lowlands and which he managed to throw out of the sealed freight car just before the train crossed the border into Germany.
Loekie never saw her father again, but was given the letter by her mother when Loekie turned 21.
Please read the story of “The Letter” here and please keep in mind that the upcoming January 27 marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and International Holocaust Remembrance Day , an annual day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Nazi era.
Image: Courtesy Isurvived.org
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The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.