The Last Journey of Peter van Pels
On January 19, 1945, a brutal winter had settled over Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was on this day that the final transport of 2,500 prisoners was forced out of the camp, beginning a horrific journey known as a death march. Among them was Peter van Pels, a boy who had spent two years in the confined safety of the Secret Annex, now thrown into a world of open, unimaginable cruelty.
The trek was a march of desperation and exhaustion. It finally ended at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, a place known for its barbarous conditions. Peter was put to work in one of its satellite camps, Melk, where prisoners were given no medical care and lived in an environment designed to dehumanize them.
Even in these terrible circumstances, Peter’s innate kindness shone through. Otto Frank, who was with him, recalled how Peter would act like a son, bringing him extra food every day. Their conversations were brief and focused on survival, never touching upon the memories of the Secret Annex or the girl they both knew. “Peter was a very good boy, really a good-hearted boy,” Otto would later say, a simple but powerful tribute to his character.
As the war neared its end, Peter’s health failed. He was moved to the hospital barracks of Mauthausen’s main camp in April 1945. Just days later, on May 5, the camp was liberated by the American army. For a brief, hopeful moment, it seemed that Peter might have survived.
But his survival was not to be. According to a list drafted by the Americans, Peter van Pels died just five days after liberation, on May 10, 1945. He was only eighteen years old. His death, so close to freedom, is a tragic and heartbreaking reminder of the millions of lives that were lost in the final, brutal days of the war. His story, told through the memories of those who knew him, reminds us that every number was a person, every victim a life full of hope and kindness.
