Transport E, Train Da 20 from Praha, Praha Hlavni Mesto, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia to Lodz, Ghetto, Poland on 03/11/1941

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 E for November 3. However, so far there are no testimonies documenting the chain of command. The fifth transport carried 265 families and 293 unmarried persons. According to a report issued by Gestapo officer Kommissar Fuchs in Lodz (dated November 4, 1941), there were 18 deportees belonging to the free professions, 150 persons in the trade and commerce sectors, and 477 craftsmen and workmen. 950 people were assessed fit to work. According to a study conducted by the Jewish Museum in Prague, 135 (13%) were younger than 18, 92 children under the age of 15, and 28 under the age of 6. The youngest was one and a half year old Harry Alefanz who travelled with his 11 year old sister Zuzana and their mother Lea (born 1903). The transport also carried 6 children without parents (between 3 and 16 years old). The medical staff who worked for the Lodz Ghetto administration listed 95 patients on this transport. 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....