Transport from Przedecz, Wloclawek, Warszawa, Poland to Chelmno, Extermination Camp, Poland on 24/04/1942

During the 1930s, approximately 3,000 people lived in the town Przedecz; of these, some one quarter were Jews. The town was occupied by the Germans on September 15, 1939, and its name changed to Moosburg. Soon after the occupation, the Germans began to demand money from Jews in Włocławek County (Leslau Landkreis), threatening them with deportation if they failed to hand it over. In 1940, approximately 769 Jews were forced to move to one area of the town. From various primary and secondary sources, it appears that about half of them—mostly the young men, unmarried Jewish girls, and married women without children—were deported to labor camps in the cities and vicinities of Poznań (Posen) and Inowrocław (Hohensalza) in 1940 and 1941.

At the end of April 1942 the last remaining Jews living in Włocławek County—including the Włocławek ghetto and Przedecz—were deported to the Chełmno (German: Kulmhof) death camp. To date no contemporary documents have been found confirming that the transport was sent to Chełmno; however, secondary literature and firsthand accounts indicate that Chełmno was the destination. The few hundred Jews who remained were deported from Przedecz on April 24, 1942. Evidence of the deportation can be gleaned from correspondence regarding the financial transfer of the Jews' assets to the German authorities. On April 24, the Amtskommissar (city clerck) of Przedecz wrote to the Gettoverwaltung (German administration of the Litzmannstadt [Łódź] ghetto) about Ms. Cäcilie Posner, who supposedly gave him her savings book with 80.20 reichsmarks in it. Four days later, Hans Biebow, head of the Gettoverwaltung, wrote a letter to the bank in Przedecz regarding bank account no. 12271, belonging to Cäcilia Romer (most likely referring to Cäcilie Posner). He claimed that she had been resettled (umgesiedelt, a Nazi euphemism for deportation) on April 24 in the Litzmannstadt ghetto, and as a result instructed the bank to transfer the funds to Sonderkonto 12300, an account used to fund the annihilation of the Wartheland Jews. There is no evidence to date that Cäcilie or any other Jew from Przedecz arrived in the Łódź ghetto in 1942....