Transport from Beuthen, Beuthen O. S. (Oppeln), Silesia (Upper), Germany to unstated place on 14/05/1942

The first transport from Beuthen allegedly went to Sosnowiec, as indicated in the handwritten note under the heading "Liste 1". This is confirmed indirectly in a testimony from Pawel Wiederman, born in 1889, who was a member of the Jewish Council (Judenrat) and the principal of a grammar school in Sosnowiec. Wiederman wrote a book about his experiences during the Nazi occupation of his home town, called "Plowa Bestia" (The Blond Beast), in which he describes the deportations from Sosnowiec in the spring of 1942. He avers that the transports started on the assembly day, Sunday May 10, 1942, "that is, on the day when those given notice were to assemble at the gathering point. The former school at Dormice Street 15, originally Deblinska Street, was chosen as the gathering point." The transport, he carries on, "included Jews who had been deported from Upper Silesia to Sosnowitz. They had belonged to the German portion before World War I and the partition of Silesia." At this part of his deliberations, Wiederman does not mention the hometowns or villages of these Jews but states that "they had received a notice to appear on May 10, 1942, at 7 o'clock. … They arrived mainly in pairs: husband and wife or two older women together."

According to Wiederman, the deportation was postponed as, apart from the German Jews and a few local Jews, nobody showed up at the assembly point. Hence, on the night of May 12, the Germans held a major round-up. Mildner and the head of Mildner's Department for Jewish Affairs, Dr. Hans Dreier, were both on site, observing the proceedings. By Wednesday morning, May 13, the Germans had gathered some 1,200 Jews who were supposed to leave from the Sosnowiec train station in the early afternoon to an unknown location. As the Jews were marched to the train station, Wiederman identifies a group of Jews he believed were from Gleiwitz while, in fact, they were from Beuthen:...