Transport from Komotini, Rodhopi, Thrace, Greece to Treblinka, Extermination Camp, Poland on 06/03/1943

The preparation for deportation in the occupied territories had begun before the agreement was signed. A detailed plan for its execution was prepared by the Commissariat for Jewish affairs in Sofia. The whole civil administration, army and police in the region were mobilized and it was directed by administrative head, Yaroslav Kalitsin. In Komotini the deportation of the local Jews was organized by Commissariat official Iliya Dobrevski. He arrived in the city 10 days before the scheduled roundup in order to coordinate the work of the various agencies involved in the operation. The roundup of the Jews in Komotini began simultaneously with the arrest of Jews in other cities in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. By order of Dobrevski and the local police commander Alexander Denchev, the city was encircled by Bulgarian troops before sunrise on March 4. 39 squads of policemen and soldiers forced the local Jews out of their homes and led them to a tobacco warehouse owned by the merchant Kocho Yonidis (after 1941 it passed to the hands of the Bulgarian merchant Chalburov). The warehouse was set up as an assembly site for the Jews from Komotini as well as for those from the nearby city of Alexandroupoli who were brought there the next day. In the warehouse the Jews were immediately searched and all currency and valuables were seized and deposited into closed accounts in the Bulgarian National Bank. The search was brutally carried out by officials and police....