Transport I from Lodz, Ghetto, Poland to Chelmno, Extermination Camp, Poland on 16/01/1942

On January 9, 1942, the Deportation Commission began to issue deportation orders via the ghetto's mailmen to the homes of the intended deportees. The "Aussiedlung" (lit. resettlement; Nazi euphemism for the deportations) of the Jews was stated in the call-up notice, and the deportees were allowed to take 12.5 kg. per person and to exchange their currency for German reichsmarks at the assembly point. The order specified that anyone who failed to report would be brought in by force and would lose his right to take any luggage with him. Together with these threats, an announcement (No. 353) issued in the name of Chaim Rumkowski, on January 9, stated that the deportees' families were allowed to sell their furniture and household appliances to the carpentry workshops in the ghetto, or leave them there for safekeeping. The first deportees were ordered to report at 7 Szklana Street (Trödlergasse) near the central prison on January 13, 1942, but only about half of them showed up; many "evaders" were brought in by force, mostly at night. The two other assembly points to which the deportees were summoned were in the Marysin area and in the school at 25 Młynarska Street (Mühlgasse). When the deportees entered these assembly sites, their food and bread-ration coupons were confiscated. In turn, they received their usual ghetto-food ration from the Judenrat (about 900 calories a day), in addition to basic clothing and wooden clogs. Each deportee was given half a loaf of bread and some sausage for the journey. The entry in the chronicle of the Lodz ghetto written a few days before the departure of the first transport indicated that 700 deportees would leave every day. Indeed, 710 people were deported in this transport. Salomon Frank, who lived in the ghetto, wrote in his diary — as early as January 11, 1942 — that he had heard about it, and that 50 people would be crowded into each car; in actual fact, closer to 55 people were probably crowded into each car....