Ravensbrück was liberated by the Red Army on April 30, 1945. Mauthausen was officially liberated by the American and Canadian armies on May 5, 1945.
Two weeks earlier, on April 22, after weeks of intense expectation, speculation and frustration, suddenly, in the middle of the night, the female prisoners, including Sabine, were forced out of their barracks and onto the big Appelplatz for roll call. It was snowing and bitterly cold. Enormous fear took hold of the women. The gas chambers were still working at top capacity. Mass killings were still taking place on a daily basis. Even the day before liberation, 3,000 men were still sent to their death.
Dr. J. M. Rubli, a doctor from Zürich, described what happened that day. Rubli was the man in charge of the Red Cross transport that would take the women to safety:
Everyone thought they were going to be sent to the gas chambers. I walked between the rows and tried to reassure them that I was a Red Cross representative, but no one believed me. They had been lied to too many times.
Suddenly, in the first early daylight, I heard the distant roar of the engines. And saw the first buses appear from the woods and coming up the hill. Sixteen of my buses became visible through the gloom, one after the other, all painted white with a red cross. When they stopped the silence on the square was deafening and only when I ordered the drivers in French to get out of the buses an enormous cheering broke out. At last they could believe it was true.
The prisoners in the camp were now seeing kind, gentle, smiling, healthy-looking men full of concern for them. Helping them to get in the buses, asking how they felt. There were no words, only tears, lots of tears. The men told them to get into the buses as quickly as possible. The road situation changed by the hour due to the fighting and the Front moving continuously.
Sabine, her ankle still encased in plaster, managed to run back to her barrack and pick up the little suitcase Gebele had given her, containing his letters and a few clothes. She was not only still recovering from her broken ankle but also still very ill with pneumonia, jaundice and other injuries. It was only thanks to Gebele that she was still alive.
The camp commandant was ordered to give everyone some bread for the journey, but when he turned up with the usual moldy pieces, the Red Cross officer gave him short shrift, and he was forced to give out the bread meant for his guards. For the prisoners, this was an eye-opener, this all-powerful man being humiliated in front of all of them. He was puce with fury.
The series of convoys, consisting of 750 Dutch, Belgian, Norwegian, French and Italian women and including sixty-seven men, was made up of the weakest, most sick and wounded people. It was hoped they could survive this difficult journey. Led by Dr. Rubli, the convoys took two and a half days to reach the Swiss border, a distance of some 500 km.
The buses kept a distance between them to be less of a target from the air, and a small car drove ahead of each convoy to make sure the road was clear, which often it was not. They were forced to make a number of detours to avoid the fighting and damaged roads. It was very risky as the Allies were carrying out bombing raids on convoys and, since it was known that fleeing Germans also painted red crosses on their cars, anything moving on the roads was a target. One bus ran out of gas. Some got stuck in the snow. Miracles were performed to keep the buses going.
When they stopped at nighttime, Dr. Rubli walked around with his torch and asked everyone, “Alles in Ordnung?” Any stomach pains, feeling ill? The women did not know what to answer. It had been years since anyone asked them a question regarding their health. It was surreal. Suddenly there was plenty of tea and food, although it was given sparingly to protect their stomachs. After years of starvation, they could not cope with normal quantities of food. But above all, “the men were so caring and worried about us,” Sabine said.
At the German/Swiss border, there was a long delay. The Swiss border control refused to let them through. They were stuck there from five in the afternoon until 10 a.m. the following morning. The women had to spend the night on straw mats in a hangar. Dr. Rubli spent all night going around giving everyone injections to keep them going. The Belgian girl sleeping next to Sabine died in the night.
Once in Switzerland, Sabine and Hetty were taken to the Kantonsspital (a hospital for infectious diseases) in Münsterlingen, where they stayed for three months to recuperate. Still young, both Sabine and Hetty made a good recovery thanks to the excellent care and attention they received, not to mention the personal interest from the doctors.
On July 24, Hetty and Sabine were discharged from the hospital and allowed to go home. The journey was arranged via the Red Cross by Count Bernadotte. The train stopped in Brussels, where there was a large welcoming committee waiting for them. Many Belgian and Dutch flags were waved and national anthems played. A delicious meal was served. It was an emotional ceremony. Sabine later said, “We burst into tears if someone was nice to us.”
However, on July 27, when they reached the Dutch border south of Eindhoven, the train was shunted into sidings. Many of the locals wanted to give them food and cigarettes, but it was forbidden by the authorities. It was feared the passengers carried infectious diseases and should therefore be quarantined in one of the Philips buildings in Eindhoven.
For Sabine and Hetty, who had spent three months in a Swiss hospital and were very clean, it was an unnecessary measure. Sabine even said later, “We were cleaner than the Dutch.” It felt as though they were back in the camp, sleeping on straw on the floor. There were no showers, although they could wash themselves in halls, where men freely walked around while the women were naked. They were still not truly free.
A Dutch person who came to look for a friend, but who recognized Sabine, managed to get her and Hetty out of the quarantine. They spent the night at his house and then traveled to The Hague the following day. Hetty was reunited with an aunt, but Sabine spent some time searching for her mother, who was eventually found to be living in a small attic room. Sabine was the first of her three children to return home.
Moeder Bien had desperately tried to visit her daughter when she heard she was alive and in a Swiss hospital, but she could not get permission to travel. Her Red Cross colleagues wrote her a kind letter to say how happy they were to hear of Sabine’s homecoming and wished them both all the best.
Dr. Steijns had also returned home safely and had resumed his practice when he sent Sabine a note to thank her once again:
Dear child,
It is possible that you were happy to hear I arrived safely back in Holland, but you cannot have been as happy as I was with your postcard. How grateful I am to you I shall never forget and the fact I can write this is for a large part due to the help Gebele gave me, which is entirely thanks to your instigation. I hope to convey this to you in person soon.
Dr. Steijns also asked after Hetty and wanted to know if Sabine had received the long letter from Gebele that he smuggled out of the camp and sent on to her.
I forwarded it immediately after my arrival in Switzerland.
A firm handshake. Steijns
The letter that Gebele wrote after Sabine had left the camp and asked Dr. Steijns to post to her was not in the archives, so I suspect she never received it.
I did find another surprising letter, though, sent to her by a Dr. Laurent who had treated her in Münsterlingen. He wrote to confess that he missed her and Hetty’s cheerful company. “Since you left I feel as though someone has died.” He also admitted that he was in love, “probably with you.” It is quite clear from the rest of the letter that this is the case. He also apologized for not coming to say his goodbyes when the train left. He had found it too painful. But while he would have loved to see her again, he felt that due to his poor pay and prospects, he could not offer her any future.
All over Holland, trains from the camps began to return with the survivors. Sabine said, “We all went to the station for every train to welcome them back. There were so many tears, with happiness to see old friends again, but also tears to hear the sad news of the many who had perished and were not coming back.”