7
The Men’s Camp
September 1943
We had been living in the Dutch houses for more than a year and had begun to settle into the harsh but manageable routine of life there. Out of the blue, we were told we would be moving the following day and must be ready to depart at three o’clock in the morning, with anything we wished to take with us. In fact, we had fewer possessions than when we arrived, our clothes having been worn to shreds. Anything of value, apart from one or two personal treasures, had already been consumed or bartered.
As always with these moves, we were given no information as to our destination or mode of travel. The idea of relocating filled us with anxiety. Human beings are capable of adapting to almost anything and we had become used to our peculiar suburban prison and re
