Transport Ap from Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia to Rejowiec, Chelm, Lublin, Poland on 18/04/1942

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). The Jewish Council announced this transport (without a binding date) for the first time in the Daily Order (Tagesbefehl) Nr. 98, on April 12, and also informed the inmates that people up to the age of 67 (raised from 65) would be deported as well and that the policy of not splitting families would be in effect only for those with minors. On the same day, Egon (Gonda) Redlich, head of the Children and Youth Department in the ghetto, noted in his diary: "In a few days, two transports will travel east." On April 13, the departure date was announced for April 15, but one day ahead of time it was postponed to April 17, and on April 16 it was postponed once again. By then, the notifications had been handed out and the deportees were requested to prepare for departure and to be on call. Due to the short time left, any appeals for exemption were denied. On April 17, the departure was finalized for the following day, April 18 at 09:50 a.m. The transport was designated “Ap”. At least 1,000 Theresienstadt inmates – men, women and children – were on board; the youngest deportee we know of was not even one year old. Adam Czerniakow, head of the Jewish Council in the Warsaw ghetto, noted on April 18 in his diary: "I went to see [Heinz] Auerswald [Commissioner for the ghetto] about the expellees from Germany. I requested a building behind the Synagogue for the new transport [that was to arrive] on April 20 (some 1,000 persons)". Referring to this quote, historian Alfred Gottwaldt points out that this transport might have been initially scheduled to travel to the Warsaw ghetto but was re-routed to Rejowiec, a transit ghetto in the Lublin District, located at a major railway junction. 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....