David Koker (1921–1945)

David Koker was born to a Jewish family in Amsterdam. He was studying philosophy and history at the university until September 1941, when the Nazis barred Jews from education during World War II. The family did not go into hiding because they believed they were exempt from deportation. In 1943, they were rounded up and transported to the concentration Camp Vught in The Netherlands. David kept a diary of his experiences and spent some of his time teaching children at the camp. In June 1944, he was among those transported to the death camp at Auschwitz, from which some people were sent to other camps. David fell ill and died during a transport to Dachau. He was able to smuggled parts of the diary out of the camp in pieces. In addition to recording events, David used the diary to write poetry. Dutch historian Jacob Presser, David' s high school history teacher, quoted from the diary in his monumental history, published in English as The Destruction of the Dutch Jews (1968). After the diary was published in 1977 as Dagboek geschreven in Vught (Diary Written in Vught), it became part of the Dutch literary canon and has remained in print. The original manuscript is stored at the Dutch Institute for War Documentation (NIOD). The diary was finally translated into English and published in 2012 under the title, At the Edge of the Abyss: A Concentration Camp Diary, 1943-1944.