Richard van Dam, a Dutch Jew born in Rotterdam, was arrested in 1943 and taken to Herzogenbusch concentration camp. Because the SS was unaware that van Dam was Jewish, he was classified as a political prisoner. Later in 1943 he was deported to Auschwitz, where he was forced to work in the mines of the Janinagrube satellite camp. Brought back to the main camp, he became a medical orderly in Auschwitz-Birkenau. In his postwar recollections, he reflects on his actions and those of other prisoner functionaries (Kapos). In January 1945 (not October 1944, as stated in his testimony), van Dam was forced on the death march from Auschwitz. He was liberated by US forces from the Mauthausen satellite camp Ebensee in May 1945.
Source: Wiener Library