Transport XXVI left the Radegast (Radogoszcz) station on the morning of March 19, 1942. This was the fortieth transport of Jews from the Łódź ghetto to Chełmno since the deportations began in January 1942. There were 1,000 Jews on the train.[1]
The prospective deportees’ feelings of desperation are evident from the requests for exemption that they submitted to the deportation committee (Aussiedlungskommission), most of which were rejected.[2] One example of the many requests submitted was that of Szajndla Chuda (b. 1877),[3] who lived with her husband, three children, son-in-law, three grandchildren, and a stranger—altogether ten persons—in one apartment.[4] In her request she wrote she was an "old weak woman of sixty-six years," who had been lying in bed for the entire winter. She was cared for by her children and provided for by her son-in-law, Abe Szczukowski, so that she "won't be a burden to anyone": this phrase was sometimes used in such applications.[5] Indeed, Rywka Lewin (nee Grinberg, b. 1914)[6] used the same reasoning in her letter. Although she had lost her job in the Stroh-Schuh-Abteilung (straw-shoe-department), she was now employed in the leather and saddle factory. Furthermore, she had also just lost her husband Majer,[7] who was meant to be deported with her.[8] In another request, Wolf Jakubowicz declared that he and his family were not dependent on ghetto welfare, nor did they have any criminal or police record. He also stated that between August 1940 and September 1941 he had been imprisoned in Radogoszcz, which strained him physically. He claimed that his condition did not allow him “to travel to an unknown destination."[9]
The deportees were ordered to report to the main prison or the nearby enclosed houses at 7 Szklana St. (Trödlergasse) in the afternoon a few days prior to the deportation date. At noon the following day they were escorted in groups to the assembly camp in Marysin. Upon entering the assembly camp, the deportees’ bread and food ration cards were confiscated, after which they received their usual daily food ration from the Judenrat. Each deportee was given half a loaf of bread and sausage as provisions for the journey.[10]...