Transport from Poznan, Poznan, Poznan, Poland to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 26/08/1943

On August 26, 1943, a deportation train carrying at least 1,026 Jews left the city of Poznań (Posen), bound for Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Jews had been brought to the Poznań train station, probably on the same day, from nearby forced labor camps such as Pinne (Szamotuły), Königshof, (Sędziny) Gutenbrunn (Kobylepole), Dembsen (Dębiec), Poggenburg (Żabikowo), and Steineck (Krzyżowniki), as well as from more distant locales such as Bentschen (Zbąszyń); each camp held from a few Jews to probably hundreds.
Although a camp’s dissolution meant a financial loss for the private companies who were exploiting Jews, some of them nevertheless cooperated with the Nazis to facilitate the deportation. A case in point is Josef Boss (b. June 30, 1897), head of the company in Dembsen, who filled the deportation lists of the transport from this camp.
According to Fred Sarne (born May 24, 1906), a deportee from the Gutenbrunn forced labor camp, there was a rumor that they would be sent to Germany’s Ruhr region (today’s North Rhine-Westphalia). Sixty-five men were packed into one freight car; in Sarne’s car some of the deportees started to cry or recite Kaddish (the prayer for the dead) when they realized they were being taken to a concentration camp. The train probably reached its destination the same day....