Transport Cq, Train Da 101 from Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 20/01/1943

This transport was announced in the Daily Orders issued by the Jewish leadership on January 17, 1943. On January 19, each inmate scheduled for transport or from the reserve list received written notice of their assignment to a “work transport”, ordering them to report on the day of departure to the assembly site, the quarantine (Schleuse) which was located at the Aussig barracks. They were allowed to bring a limited amount of luggage, usually one suitcase per person. The inmates, who had received identification numbers upon their deportation to Theresienstadt, were now given new identification numbers which they had to hang around their necks. During quarantine, the Jewish leadership was able to intermittently arrange for provisions and supplies for the inmates. The transport, designated “Cq”, departed from Theresienstadt on January 20, 1943 and was the first of a series of five transports. On board were 2,000 men, women and children. It arrived in Auschwitz the next day on January 21. The transport was composed entirely of Jews who had been deported earlier from the Protectorate. Among them, 545 arrived in Theresienstadt on transports “Cl” and “Cm” that had arrived from Mlada Boleslav on January 13 and 16, 1943, and possibly remained in quarantine since their arrival at the ghetto; 482 arrived from Tabor on transports “Bz” and “Cb” on November 12 and 16, 1942; and 479 arrived from Klatovy on transports “Cd” and “Ce” on November 26 and 30, 1942. On the day of the transport, the inmates were marched to the Bauschowitz (Bohusovice) train station, some 3km outside the ghetto, where they were loaded onto the railway cars that were waiting. Those unable to march were taken with the heavier luggage by truck or by man-drawn carts....