During the summer of 1944, increasing numbers of transports carry Westerbork`s prisoners to the extermination camps in the East. Of 107`000 camp inmates, less than 5`000 ultimately survive.

In the last transport to leave Westerbork for Auschwitz, on September 4th 1944, Max Ehrlich is number 151 on the list of  victims.

Eyewitnesses recount that, after reaching Auschwitz extermination camp, he still suffers the misfortune to be recognized by a Hauptsturmfuehrer. As a result, Max Ehrlich is subjected to an additional martyrdom: brought before a group of SS brutes holding their loaded guns aimed at him, he is ordered to tell jokes. Shortly thereafter, in late 1944, his Nazi captors murder him in the Auschwitz gas chambers.