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Wave of Deportation from Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern (Pfalz), Bavaria, Germany to Gurs, Camp, France on 22/10/1940

Transport
Departure Date 22/10/1940 Arrival Date 26/10/1940

In his postwar testimony, the former president of the Jewish community of Mannheim, Eugen Neter recalled that, around mid-October, rumours spread in the city about an imminent operation that would target the local Jews, but that his inquiries did not lead to any clarification. Neter stated that he became convinced that there were indeed plans for the Jews in his area when Jewish workers notified him on October 21 that they had been handed their papers by order of the political authorities. Meanwhile, all civil servants in the Palatinate (and likely also in Baden) who had been assigned to assist with the deportations received a letter with guidelines. This letter likely originated from Eichmann’s department as it is very similar to letters issued for later deportations from the Reich. It defined who was eligible for deportation and who would be excluded; it stated how and where the Jews would be assembled, and it outlined the tasks of the assigned police officers. The letter detailed what the deportees would be allowed to bring with them: luggage weighing up to 50kg, a full set of clothing, a woolen blanket, provisions for several days, tableware, up to 100 Reichsmarks in cash and all personal documents. It also stated that they had to submit any valuables that exceeded the allowed 100 Reichsmarks, how the German personnel on site had to secure these valuables, how the vacated apartment was supposed to be secured and sealed, and it also urged the personnel on site to treat the deportees “correctly”. The deportation was carried out on October 22 and 23, 1940 during the 6th and 7th day of the Sukkot festival (Tabernacles). Beginning in the early morning hours, members of the Secret State Police and uniformed policemen appeared at the doors of apartments, old age homes, and hospitals and notified the Jewish residents that they were about to be deported. The deportees were told what they would be allowed to take with them and were given between 15 minutes and 2 hours to pack. They were usually not given any additional information, so the large majority of deportees were unaware of their destination. Most of the arrested Jews were completely surprised by the raid. Dozens committed suicide out of desperation. The authorities allowed for very few exemptions, even for sick people. Those who were unable to walk were brought on stretchers to the transport. The deportees from smaller communities were transported by bus or truck to assembly sites in larger towns and cities. Some testimonies mention that the deportees were forced to sign quitclaim deeds relating to all of their property which would become standard procedure for later deportations. Arrests were conducted nearly simulaneously in 137 communities in the Baden area and in more than 100 communities in the Palatinate. The complexity of the operation required not only precise planning and logistics, but also the assistance of a wide aray of officials and organizations that included the police, the military, the financial and census authorities, and many private businesses. Once the deportees were assembled, they were taken to nearby railway stations where they had to board trains comprising French passenger cars. The trains followed different routes to cross into French territory. During the stop at the former border crossing, the deportees’ Reichsmarks were exchanged for Francs. The trains then continued over occupied French territory towards Chalon-sur-Saône, one of the two train crossings into the Vichy zone. The French authorities had been led to believe that the trains carried French citizens who had been expelled from the Reich. Adolf Eichmann later stated that he went to the crossing in person to make sure that the trains were not rejected. He was successful. The Vichy authorities realized that they had been deceived only when the trains arrived at the next stop in Mâcon. They turned to the German authorities, but their requests to return the deportees were ignored. Confronted with the problem of finding a place to house more than 6,500 deportees, the Vichy government decided to move them into Gurs, a camp that had been used to imprison “undesirables”. The deportation trains were routed southwards towards Avignon and then to the west – until they reached the small railway station of Oloron-Sante-Marie, where the deportees were transferred to trucks and driven the last 15kms to the Gurs camp site. The transfer took hours and was conducted in pouring rain which had also turned the campsite into a mud pool. The luggage stayed behind and in many cases it took weeks until it was handed out. Upon arrival, the deportees were housed in overcrowded and often unfurnished barracks under difficult hygienic conditions. There is very little as well as contradictory information regarding individual transports that left Baden during the Wagner-Bürckel Operation. A letter sent by RSHA Chief Reinhard Heydrich to the Foreign Ministry dated October 29 states that 7 Transports left the Gau (the Nazi equivalent to province or state) of Baden (on October 22 and 23) and that another 2 originated from the Saar-Palatinate (on October 22). The document also gives the total number of deportees (6,504) and indicates that the transports from Baden and the Saar-Palatinate were sent via different routes to the border with unoccupied France: the former traveled via Alsace, while the latter crossed through the Lorraine. The identification number at the top of the document indicates that it was issued by Adolf Eichmann’s Department for Emigration and Eviction which was tasked with organizing the deportations. Therefore, the number of transports given in this particular document is likely correct and the figure of 6,504 is also probably very close to the actual number of deportees. According to a list assembled after the war, at least 5,593 Jews were deported from Baden. A Gestapo document gives the number of deportees from the Pfalz (826) and from the Saarland (145). Combined, these figures lead to a slightly higher total number of 6,564 deportees. The difference might be explained by the fact that there were dozens of suicides among those notified of their imminent deportation and that several people, including Eugen Neter, head of the Jewish community in Mannheim, joined the transport voluntarily. As there are no documents that indicate the numbers of individual transports, their departure and arrival time and their precise route cannot be determined beyond doubt. There are however testimonies by survivors that provide some details. This transport was one of two used to deport 971 Jews from the Saar-Palatinate to Vichy France. The few available documents indicate that the deportations from the Saar region and from the Palatinate were conducted separately and took different routes. The first step in the deportation was the transfer of Jews from the rural, smaller communities to assembly points in larger cities. In the case of the Palatinate, those cities were Ludwigshafen, Kaiserslautern, and Landau. As in Baden, the assembly sites served as a registration area and temporary internment camp until the transfer to the railway station; but here the modus operandi differed slightly: In the Palatinate and the Saar area, the 100 Reichsmarks that the deportees were allowed to bring were exchanged for Francs at the assembly site and not at the border. Thus, in these areas, the deportees had an early indication that they were not being sent to the East, but to France. It is not completely clear from the available documentation which route the train took on its way to France. A testimony by a female deportee from Ludwigshafen mentions stopping at Landau and Zweibrücken which would indicate that the Jews from Kaiserslautern were either send via Ludwigshafen and Landau or that they were transported independently to Saarbrücken and joined the train there. From Saarbrücken, the train apparently traveled through Saargemünd (Saargemuines), Luneville and Dijon to Chalon-sur-Saône, where it left occupied France for the unoccupied zone. Once on Vichy territory, the transport followed the regular route through Lyon, Avignon, Toulouse, and Pau to its final destination in Oloron-Sainte-Marie. There, the 826 deportees from the Palatinate were transferred to trucks and taken to the Gurs camp.

Overview
    No. of transports at the event : 2
    No. of deportees at departure : 826
    No. of deportees upon arrival : 826
    Date of Departure : 22/10/1940
    Date of Arrival : 26/10/1940