Transport IV from Lodz, Ghetto, Poland to Chelmno, Extermination Camp, Poland on 25/02/1942

Three days before the impending deportation, most of the deportees were informed by mail about where to assemble. “Transport IV” of February 25, 1942, listed 1,005 Jews to be removed from the ghetto. Although it is known that the deportation list included prisoners serving sentences in the ghetto, people on welfare, sewage workers, and "socially harmful individuals," such as notorious informers, the list itself has not been preserved. Nevertheless, some of the victims’ names have been recorded. They don't stem from German sources — since the Gestapo succeeded in destroying most of the evidence of their crimes — but from population registry books, kept by the Judenrat, from censuses and registrations within the ghetto where Jews occasionally would add the deportation date to the files. So far, only three names are linked to the transport IV on February 25: Majer Gecel Tajchman (b. June 9, 1932), Ida Goldberg (b. May 27, 1932), and Chaja Esther Apfelblat (b. February 10, 1927). These names have been preserved, as over 13,000 students signed the album of the ghetto schools. Tajchman, not even 10 years old at the time of his deportation, lived in the ghetto on Königsbergerstrasse 4 (Ulica Wrześnieńska) in an apartment building, not far from the old cemetery. He went to school #2 on Rembrandtstrasse 10 (Ulica Jakuba). This was a religious school for boys. The other 2 children were students as well, although there is no more information about them. For all three children, the note on the file says "AUSG 25.2.42" which stands for "Ausgesiedelt" (in German, literally "resettled" or "relocated"), i.e., a euphemism for the deportation date. Another entry specifies "ausg. 25.2.42 TR 4/2" —“TR” stands for “Transport,” in this case Transport IV on February 25, 1942. It is not known with certainty to which assembly areas the Jews of this transport were summoned, but it can be assumed that at least 1 or 2 of the known locations from the first deportation wave were among them — the school building on Młynarska Street (Mühlgasse); the place on Szklana Street (Trödlergasse) near the central prison; and the collection point in Marysin. At the assembly area, everybody was initially registered and then had to hand over their ration cards. This time, neither baggage nor money was permitted, although the Austrian-Jewish writer Oskar Rosenfeld (deported to the Łódź ghetto in November 1941) noted on February 25 that there were "additional transports with [individual luggage up to] 12.5 kg and 10 Reichsmark personal allowance." Moreover, Rosenfeld wrote that the Jewish police stormed the dwellings of those who had failed to show up at the assembly point and prevented them from taking any luggage. Jews who arrived with knapsacks and bags were forced to discard them. Some of the children destined for deportation were discovered frozen to death in their rooms....