Transport AAk from Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia to Sobibor, Extermination Camp, Poland on 12/06/1942

The deportation of 1,000 Jews on June 12, 1942 from Theresienstadt to Trawniki, situated in Świdnik County, on June 12, 1942 was designated as "AAk". Originally this transport was scheduled for June 13. It is documented in Order of the Day No. 144 on June 8. As with the other transports, it was simply called "Osttransport" (transport to the East) and the deportees were not informed of their final destination. Furthermore, it was specified that the majority of the 724 deportees from the Kolin transport "Aac", scheduled for arrival on June 9, would be selected for onward transport. The new transport would be completed with inmates from the ghetto who would be notified on June 11. However, on June 11, the Jewish council issued another Order (No. 147), advising the public that due to a new directive from the camp commander, this transport would leave already on June 12, at 7 pm and an additional "Osttransport" would be assembled for June 13. It was finally decided to add the majority of the 727 Jews who had arrived on transport “AAb” from Kolin on June 5 (the 2nd Kolin transport) to the June 12 transport as well. Like most deportees from earlier incoming transports since spring 1942 who were supposed to be deported shortly afterwards to the Lublin district, and therefore, upon arrival in Theresienstadt, were hauled into a quarantine site, known as "Schleuse" (floodgate), most Jews from Kolin probably spent the days up to the onward transport in one of these barracks that served as a transfer site and as a checkpoint and from where they were not allowed to leave until departure. According to Eva Roubíčková, a survivor from Saaz in the Sudeten who was deported to Theresienstadt on December 17, 1941, many women from the Theresienstadt satellite camp Křivoklát (Außenkommando Pürglitz) were put on this transport as well. They belonged to a group of 1,000 women who were sent to the woodlands of Křivoklát in order to plant saplings as part of a reforestation program between April 10 and June 6, 1942. This is confirmed by another survivor, Helga Weiss, a young schoolgirl from Prague who was deported to Thesesienstadt on December 10, 1941. She notes in her diary, that her aunt Ola was selected for transport "AAk" with the female workers from Křivoklát:...