Transport from Gniezno, Gniezno, Poznan, Poland to Piotrkow Trybunalski, Ghetto, Poland on 12/12/1939

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 county commissioners (Landräte) cooperate.^[6] 

Around that time, small transports with Jews from surrounding counties began to arrive in Gniezno, which was considered a preliminary step for deportation to the General Government. The deportees came from five counties in the administrative district (Regierungsbezirk) of Hohensalza (Inowrocław): Gniezno (Gnesen), Inowrocław, Mogilno, Wągrowiec (Wongrowitz)^[7] and Żnin (Dietfurt).^[8] Jews from the city of Gniezno, for example, were forced to leave their apartments in mid-November, after which they were held in a sugar factory for a few days and finally placed in a Franciscan monastery for almost a whole month.^[9] Jewish deportees from other localities were taken directly to the monastery and spent a period of time there that ranged from several days to several weeks.^[10] 

Located at 12 Franciszkańska St., the Franciscan monastery had been used in the interwar period as a public school. Shortly before World War II, the monks reclaimed the building from the city. After the war broke out the building was taken over by the Gestapo, which turned it into a transit camp for Poles and Jews.^[11] ...