Transport Bu from Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia to Treblinka, Extermination Camp, Poland on 08/10/1942

The transport orders were handed to the camp commander, Siegfried Seidl from the Office for the Settlement of the Jewish Question in Prague. The orders were presumably passed on to the Jewish Council (Ältestenrat), who was forced to comply. It is unknown which agency created and finalized the transport list, and what criteria they used. As a general rule, inmates were put on transports together with their spouses and underage children. This transport was announced in the Daily Orders issued by the Jewish leadership on October 5, 1942. On the morning of the next, each inmate scheduled for transport was informed of his upcoming deportation. Those who were considered to fill vital positions in the ghetto were given a very short period to file an appeal. On the next day, the final summonses were sent out, and the inmates on this transport were ordered to pack their belongings, and report to the quarantine site (“Schleuse”) at the courtyard of the Aussig Barracks. During quarantine, the Jewish leadership was able to intermittently arrange for provisions and supplies. The transport, designated “Bu”, departed from Theresienstadt on October 8, 1942 and was the second in a series of two transports of relatively young individuals to Treblinka. On board were 1,000 inmates of Theresienstadt. It arrived in Treblinka on October 10 or 11. The transport was composed entirely of Jews who had been deported from the Protectorate, among them 597 who arrived in Theresienstadt on the previous month. Their average age was 39....