Transport An from Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia to Warszawa, Ghetto, Poland on 26/04/1942

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). A transport to Piaski (in the General Government) had just left the ghetto on April 23 when the Jewish Council announced this transport to the East ("Ostentransport") in the Daily Order (Tagesbefehl) Nr. 108. The departure was confirmed the following day, together with the announcement of more transports to the East for that month. Certain groups were eligible for exemption and could apply by 6:00 pm the same day. These included families which otherwise would be torn apart, people above 67 years of age (raised from 65), veterans of WWI, Jews married to non-Jews, or those with foreign citizenship. The Jewish council also informed the inmates that this transport would be dispatched prior to any new arrivals in the ghetto. Hence, in order to fill the quota, the families and children of those already in Theresienstadt were to be included too. This transport, designated “An”, was rescheduled and departed Theresienstadt on April 26, 1942. There were at least 1,000 Theresienstadt inmates on board, many of whom were children. The deportation list also reveals that many of the deportees did not seem to have been working in jobs that would exempt them from deportation. Many were listed merely as ‘worker’ or ‘household’. On the day 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....