Transport Bb, Train Da 402 from Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia to Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia on 20/08/1942

The deportation train was designated “Da 402" according to the timetable for special trains (“Sonderzüge”). The schedule for “special trains for migrants (Umsiedler), harvest workforce and Jews” for the period between August 8 and October 30 had been set at the meeting of the Eastern General Operations Board (GBL, Generalbetriebsleitungen Ost) on August 6, 1942, in Frankfurt am Main. “Migrants” (Umsielder) and “harvest workers” were Nazi euphemisms for deportees and for forced labourers which were used to mask the true purpose of the trains. The transport orders were handed to the camp commander, Siegfried Seidl from the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung (Central Office for Jewish Emigration) in Prague, who passed them on to the Jewish leadership of the ghetto (Ältestenrat). The 195th Daily Orders issued by the Jewish Council dated August 15, 1942, declared that the transport would depart for the East on Thursday August 20. Based on these Orders, it is likely that some Jews registered for deportation were already located at the quarantine site, the “Schleuse”. The rest of the deportees were to receive notice of their deportation on August 16, and were able to file an appeal by 12:00 the same day. The next day, their luggage was sent to be inspected. The Jews who were already in the “Schluese”, however, were notified of their deportation only on August 18. The 196th Daily Orders dated August 17 also mention the transport, and yet the deportees who were already in the Schleuse were not given the opportunity to file an appeal to exempt them from deportation. The deportees on this transport were for the most part had arrived at the ghetto between December 4, 1941 and August 10, 1942, mostly from the cities Brno (Brünn), České Budějovice (Budweis), Plzen (Pilsen), Prague and Třebíč (Trebitsch) in the Protectorate....