Transport from Moravska Ostrava, Moravska Ostrava, Moravia-Silesia, Czechoslovakia to Nisko, Nisko, Lwow, Poland on 26/10/1939

The second transport from Ostrava to Nisko (the fifth out of seven Nisko transports altogether) left on October 26. It was ordered by Eichmann and organized by the local branch of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Prague (Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung in Prag, Zweigstelle Mährisch-Ostrau), headed by SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Günther. Eichmann briefed his staff in Ostrava for the first time on October 9 where he mentioned already the plan for a second transport with 1,000 Jews within a short range of time. Immediately after the departure of the first Ostrava transport on October 18, Anton Brunner from Eichmann's staff in Vienna who had been temporarily posted in Ostrava informed the head of the Jewish community, Salo Krämer that all able-bodied Jews, men and women alike, were to be resettled in Poland. He ordered Krämer to speed up the registration process and to turn over the required roster by October 22. This announcement, to deport the women as well, caused a big stir in the community. In the following days hundreds of Jews fled to Prague and to other locations. Foreign correspondents appeared in the city and even the local Nazi newspapers that usually received approval from the leadership prior to publication printed unauthorized reports about Ostrava being emptied of Jews. Brunner subsequently rebuked and threatened the journalists and claimed that all Jews had signed up voluntarily. On the evening of October 19, all plans for further transports to Nisko were halted by order of SS-Oberführer Heinrich Müller at the RSHA. The directive, addressed to Eichmann, required "central coordination" and consent from the RSHA for all future mass deportations. However, Eichmann refused to implement the order without being personally advised by Müller. He therefore travelled to Berlin for consultations on October 22 and advised SS-Sturmbannführer Rolf Günther, a younger brother of Hans Günther who served in the Central Office in Prague and in the Ostrava branch, to carry on with the preparations. After Eichmann's departure, Rolf Günther received the roster of women to be deported from Ostrava. However, since Eichmann had not only asked for women, and since there seemed to be not enough candidates for deportation from Ostrava alone, Günther ordered the Gestapo in Brno (Brünn) to prepare a couple of hundred prisoners for deportation as well, among them Jews who had been detained after fleeing from Ostrava. As for the rest, he decided to wait for Eichmann’s order. On October 24 Eichmann called his staff in Ostrava noting that the transports for the purposes of resettlement had indeed been suspended until further notice. However, he added that he had managed to gain approval for a reduced transport of 400 Jews from Ostrava in order "to rescue the prestige of the local state police." He directed Günther to assemble a transport consisting only of men. That day Günther subsequently reserved third-class passenger cars through the transport command post of the Reichsbahn in Oppeln with a capacity of up to 400 persons. He reserved a further two 2nd class passenger cars for the guard unit and insisted that the cars arrive in Ostrava no later than noon on Thursday, October 26....