Transport from Kalisz, Kalisz, Lodz, Poland to Sarnaki, Siedlce, Lublin, Poland on 11/12/1939

Some 16,000 Jews were deported from Kalisz town to the General Government in at least ten trains between December 2 and 14, 1939. The timetables of the transports in the course of the first Nahplan were compiled according to the arrival stations, in cooperation with the Reichsbahndirektion (railway division) in Poznań (Posen) and the Generaldirektion Ostbahn in Kraków (Krakau). The railway divisions in Poznań and Kraków supplied the Sonderzüge (special trains) in which the Jews were deported. The deportations were led, planned, and carried out by several officials of the RSHA. Albert Rapp, commander of SD (Sicherheitsdienst, Security Service) in Poznań and subordinate of Wilhelm Koppe, HSSPF (Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer, Higher SS and Police Leader) Warthegau, was responsible for the deportations in the Wartheland. On site, they were organized by the mayor of Kalisz, Walter Grabowski, and the Landrat (county commissioner) of Kalisz, Herrmann Marggraf. The deportation guidelines, issued by Himmler and passed on in November 1939 by Koppe to several Nazi officials involved, stated that the deportees were responsible for taking enough food for their time of assembly and transport, but no one told them how long this would take. The Jews were not allowed to take more than one suitcase and up to fifty złoty in cash per person (less than the Poles were allowed). One of the transports, which left Kalisz town on December 11, 1939, traveled more than 400 kilometer northeast to Sarnaki, in the Lublin district....