Wim Alosery, survivor of Nazi camps, Cap Arcona sinking dies

BERLIN – The last known Dutch survivor of the Nazi concentration camp Neuengamme and the Cap Arcona maritime disaster, Wim Alosery, has died.

A spokeswoman for the Neuengamme memorial centre says Alosery died peacefully in his sleep Wednesday.

Iris Groschek said Friday that the 94-year-old had travelled to Hamburg to attend an event commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the camp’s liberation.

Alosery, a Jehovah’s Witness, arrived in Neuengamme from the Amersfoort camp near Amsterdam in 1944.

In the final days of the war he and about 6,600 other concentration camp inmates were moved onto the prison ship Cap Arcona, off Luebeck. Believing fleeing Nazis were on board, British planes attacked the ship and two others. Only 450 people survived.

A book about Alosery’s life was published in the Netherlands last month.