Transport from Wagrowiec, Wagrowiec, Poznan, Poland to Gniezno, Gniezno, Poznan, Poland on 12/1939

In 1939, the agricultural Landkreis Wongrowitz (Wągrowiec County) had a population of 60,000 people; the county’s central town, Wągrowiec, had 9,000 inhabitants. Fifty Jews, from fifteen families, lived in Wągrowiec County. Approximately half of them were in Wągrowiec; the rest lived in Gołańcz (Gollantsch).^[1]

In November 1939, the Wągrowiec Sicherheitspolizei seized the Jews' savings and bank accounts.^[2] A series of anti-Jewish decrees were also passed. On November 12, 1939, Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF, Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer) Wilhelm Koppe sent an order on behalf of Heinrich Himmler for the deportation of Poles and Jews to the General Government (Generalgouvernement, the zone of Nazi-occupied central Poland not formally annexed to the Reich). He demanded that each of the district commanders (Landräte) cooperate with the order; they were expected to respond.^[3] The response from the Wongrowitz County commander arrived two weeks after the expected date, on November 30, 1939. The response, sent by Sturmbannführer Schmidt, relayed that Landrat (County Commissioner) Müller-Hoppenworth had been ill, and that the individual responsible for the operation, Gendarmerie-Ober[wacht]meister (Police Officer) Schreyack, had made the necessary arrangements though these were, in Schmidt’s opinion, unsatisfactory.

Schmidt noted that the only transport route ran through Elsenau (Damasławek), Jannowitz (Janowiec), and Gnesen (Gniezno).^[4] He suggested that a total of 2,500 people should be deported and that the first 1,000 could be "loaded" three days after confirmation was received from Koppe. He wrote that the deportation could be carried out by the local police, military and Selbstschutz (paramilitary Nazi group of ethnic Germans subordinate to the local SS and police).^[5] It appears that Reserve Police Battalion 41 also participated in these and other deportations from the area.^[6]...