Transport from Ravensbrueck, Camp, Germany to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 24/04/1944

The last Danish Jews to arrive in the Theresienstadt (Terezín) Ghetto were Karen Katznelson and her two-year-old son Ib. The two of them arrived there together on April 25, 1944.^[1] Karen and Ib Katznelson had been deported from Denmark to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in November 1943, along with eight other Danish Jewish women and children.^[2] In Ravensbrück, the Jewish women and children never became part of the general camp population, but were instead kept together as a group and taken to the Zellenbau (prison) of the camp.^[3] The section they were held in had originally been intended to house prominent political prisoners—but, during their incarceration, there were no other inmates there.^[4]

On January 13, 1944, the other eight Danish Jewish women and children arrived in Theresienstadt with a transport from Ravensbrück.^[5] Karen and Ib were left behind, because Ib had fallen ill with diphtheria and taken to the camp’s Krankenrevier (sickbay). In her postwar testimony, Karen describes how, on the night of January 12-13, 1944, she and the other Danish Jews had to pack their belongings and prepare for departure. However, Karen still hadn’t been reunited with her son: “I didn’t have my boy. I thought: What now? I can’t leave. I still didn’t know what was going on. But, after we had all been lined up, I was sent back to the prison alone, while all the others left.”^[6]

After the departure of the others, Karen was held in a single cell together with her son, who had been released from the sickbay, despite being still sick. Karen, too, contracted diphtheria. She and Ib were sent back to the sickbay, and both remained there until about April 24, 1944, when they were returned to the prison. That same day, they were taken from there to the Fürstenberg train station. A plain-clothed German officer accompanied them. They boarded a regular passenger train that took them to Berlin. There, they boarded another train, which took them to the Bauschowitz (Bohušovice) train station, some 2.5 kilometers from Theresienstadt. In Bauschowitz, they were picked up by a truck, which took them to the ghetto. After having had their valuables confiscated, Karen and Ib were sent to the ghetto hospital, since they were both still sick.^[7]
 

Of the transport from Ravensbrück registered as XXV/4 Ez in Theresienstadt, both deportees survived the Holocaust....