Transport Al from Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia to Piaski Luterskie, Lublin, Lublin, Poland on 23/04/1942

The transport orders were handed to the camp commander, Siegfried Seidl from the Central Office for Jewish Emigration (Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung) in Prague, who passed them on to the Jewish leadership of the ghetto (Ältestenrat). This transport was first announced by the Jewish Council in the Daily Order (Tagesbefehl) Nr. 102 on April 16, with the departure date of April 20. Certain groups, such as family members who otherwise would be torn apart, were eligible for exemption and could apply by April 17 at 2:00 p.m. There was not a lot of time left for these applications however, as this was the day on which the notifications were handed out to the deportees. Given the short time frame, the Jewish leadership recommended all inmates who had received transport notifications to prepare for their departure and to be on call. One day prior to the scheduled departure, it was announced in the Daily Order Nr. 104 that the transport had been postponed until April 23. On April 22, the deportation was confirmed as one of the April transports to the East ("Ostentransport"), to be dispatched with 1,000 people the following day, on April 23. The transport, designated “Al”, departed from Theresienstadt on April 23, 1942 At least 1,000 Theresienstadt inmates were on board – men, women and children. The train's destination was the transit ghetto Piaski, southeast of Lublin. On the morning of the transport, the Jews were marched or taken by truck to the Bohusovice (Bauschowitz) train station, some 3 km outside the ghetto, where they were loaded onto the railway cars that were waiting....