Transport from Florina, Florina, Macedonia, Greece to Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece on 30/04/1943

Due to the lack of official documentation, the specific dates and numbers related to this transport are based on survivor testimonies. Menahem Calderon, a survivor from this transport, recalls in his post-war testimony that in late April 1943 German officials of the SD Special Commando IV B 4 unit, a German anti-Jewish agency based in Thessaloniki, arrived at Florina, escorted by several employees of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki. They ordered all Jewish men to report to the local synagogue for a short briefing. There, they were told that the Jews of Florina were to be sent for a work assignment in Germany. They were asked to assemble the next day at a local school next to the Sakoulevas River, and to bring with them their valuables and provisions for the journey. The next day, at the assembly site, the luggage was searched and all valuables were confiscated. The Jews were then taken to the train station, where they were loaded into freight cars. It is assumed that the train departed on April 30, and arrived in Thessaloniki the same day. The number of deportees is estimated between 372 and 386. In Thessaloniki the deportees were taken to the Baron Hirsch ghetto where the rest of their valuables were confiscated. They remained in the ghetto until May 3, when they were placed together with Jews from Thessaloniki and other regions of Macedonia on the 15th deportation train from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The train arrived in Auschwitz on May 7. Upon arrival at Auschwitz, 220 men were admitted into the camp and tattooed with the numbers 119781-120000. 318 women were also admitted and tattooed with the numbers 43779-44096. The remaining Jews were murdered in the gas chambers immediately upon arrival. Nearly all of the deportees from Florina were murdered.