Transport from Coo, Dodecanese Islands, Italy to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 23/07/1944

The Jewish families were forced out of their houses and onto trucks. Around 100 people were subsequently transported and assembled at the Governor's Building (Reggenza) in the center of the city, where they stayed for one day awaiting their deportation. The Jews were then loaded into three boats coming from Rhodes carrying around 1,600 people from the Island. Rivka Franco Capilotto recalls: "The next day we waited for the boats from Rhodes. They put us together with the Jews from Rhodes to take us to - I don't know where". The journey from Kos to Piraeus lasted around nine days under horrible conditions. The heat was unbearable and the boats were so full that the detainees could not make the slightest move. Seven people died during the voyage, and their bodies were thrown into the sea. On the way to Piraeus they made a short stop to add the Jews from the neighbouring island of Kalymnos to the already severely overcrowded boats. Rivka Franco Capilotto recalls: "We made a stop at the Island of Kalymnos where one Jewish woman was living. They knew that there was a Jewish woman living there. They put her on the boat and we continued". The deportees arrived in Piraeus on August 3, 1944 and were immediately transported by truck to the Haidari transit camp. There they suffered all kinds of humiliations and hardships. Mathilda Cohen from Rhodes recalls: "In Haidari it was even worse than in Auschwitz, we were not even given any water. My grandfather died during the night"....