I have been here in Amsterdam since 20th November. When I wanted to fly to Amsterdam by aeroplane on Friday the 11th November with a visa for America, I was arrested at the airport and taken to the city prison. On the way there the Kriminalbeamte treated us properly, as befitted the circumstances. In prison we 220 Jews lay, in a room with space for 30 to 40 people. In total in F. at that time c. 600 Jews were being accommodated under arrest. Because of the narrowness of the room we could not lie on our backs but had to lie on our sides, pressing tightly against each other like sardines in a tin. We then went by train under police guard to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
On arrival on Saturday morning we were received by SS, almost entirely very young men who behaved in an unbelievable way particularly towards the elderly male prisoners. We were continually sworn at and beaten the whole way from the railway station to the camp, which we had to cover at the double. In the camp there were only SS men, no police. We had to stand for 16 hours, were intermittently sworn at and beaten so that old men collapsed. Then, after we had to strip - our things were disinfected and as a result were completely unwearable – we arrived in barracks of which there are 60 in Sachsenhausen. The clothing supplied to us was new and had a red and yellow Mogen Dovid. Absolutely everything was quite new, especially even the towels. Obviously extensive preparations had been made for the reception of the Jewish prisoners. Even the barracks were newly built. Elderly politische Häftlinge served as Aufseher in the camp, who behaved relatively pleasantly towards us in agreeable contrast to the conduct of the SS men.
Here too in the barracks we lay quite tightly until on the following day some people were put in the day room.
The day passed as follows: at 5 o’clock we had to get up, at 6 o’clock there was breakfast, at 7 o’clock was Appell which was interrupted by swearing and kicks from the SS men. Meanwhile hair was cut and beards were shaved off.
I worked for the first time on Tuesday. Every activity had to be carried out at the double; we had to haul bags of sand and cement, sometimes also rocks. For food we were given coffee in a canteen [flask] to take with us and bread spread with something, but there was barely time to sit down and eat it because we had to continue to work at the double. Supper was then not bad.
A Rabbi Cohn was treated particularly badly and constantly sworn at and ridiculed. A large chimney stack that towered over the camp was pointed out to us by the SS men, who said that the following day we would be able to see smoke from ourselves coming out of the chimney.
On Thursday morning I was released on the intervention of my mother because I did have a visa for America.
In Hamburg I have seen how people have thrown stolen goods into the canal. In Jewish department stores the windows were smashed, everything that appeared Jewish was seized.