During the war years, the transports, known colloquially as the “Jews’ trains,” traveled from Hooghalen via Winschoten, Nieuweschans, and Leer further east. Their final destination was usually the former General Government for the occupied territories in Poland.
Dutch and German people who lived or worked near the Hooghalen–Leer railway line, mostly as young adults, witnessed these transports. Sometimes they could see people sitting in the trains, and often they saw notes thrown out of the trains as a last sign of life. They picked up these notes and tried to get them to their intended destination.
