Transport B, Train Da 7 from Praha, Praha Hlavni Mesto, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia to Lodz, Ghetto, Poland on 21/10/1941

Much of the information regarding the detailed processing of the five transports is still missing. It is likely that the Zentralstelle ordered the Jewish community to organize Transport B for October 21. However, so far there are no testimonies documenting the chain of command. Most of the deportees were Jews from Prague, "rather elderly women and men, well dressed without exception" (progress report issued by the District Command Nord dated, November 13, 1941). However, there were also refugees from the Altreich (Reich territory within the 1937 borders) as well from Austria and the Sudetenland. Transport B carried 306 families and 202 unmarried persons. The men were first and foremost business men, academics, lawyers, physicians, artists, many of whom were well-known citizens, a circumstance that led to the cynical labeling of this transport the "VIP-Transport" (Isaiah Trunk, Łódź Ghetto, p. 308) or the "intelligentsia transport". 325 persons (32.5% had at least one academic title. According to a report issued by Gestapo officer Kommissar Fuchs in Łódź dated November 4, 1941, there were 94 deportees belonging to the free professions, 47 persons from the trade and commerce sectors, 240 craftsmen and workmen, and 450 people with "no profession". 960 people were assessed fit to work. The average age of these deportees was slightly younger than the first transport although this one carried fewer children. According to a study conducted by the Jewish Museum in Prague, Transport B carried 116 children and young adults under the age of 18 (i.e. 11.6 %), of whom 91 were children under the age of 15 and 17 were under the age of 6. The youngest deportee was 15 month- old Tomáš Steinherz who was deported with his father, mother, and 5 year old sister Marie (See also the telex of the Staatspolizei [Stapo] Litzmannstadt to the head of the Sipo and the SD in Posen, dated October 21, 1941 and signed by SS-Sturmnannführer Dr. Schefe). Approximately four to three days before the deportation, the Jews received written notice from an employee or an envoy of the Jewish community informing them where to gather and what to bring. They were ordered to gather at the fairgrounds, in the facilities of the so called Radiomarkt, located in the Holešovice district (Holleschowitz) where they had to report to the Orpo. They spent mostly three days at the Radiomarkt with little food and water and with only the provisions they had brought with them. The Orpo also transferred them to the train station. These police forces consisted of German Guard Divisions that had been provided by the "Polizeiregiment Böhmen" by order of Orpo-chief Kurt Daluege to escort the deportees to the Bubner-Bahnhof railway station (Praha-Bubny) and to guard them on the deportation trains. These guards were posted at a ratio of 1:60 for the half kilometer walk from the fairgrounds to the station and at a ratio of 1:12 for the train journey to Łódź. The Germans also ordered reinforcements from the Czech gendarmerie at the stationhouse Veletržní-Messestrasse (70 officers for Transport A, 30 officers for Transport B and 20 each for Transports C and D). Since the transfer to the railway station proceeded without incident, the Germans refrained from calling in reinforcements for the last transport. The transports took place mainly in the early morning or at around noon. The police forces were called for service either between 5:30 am and 11:00 am or between 5:30 am and 9:30 am....