Transport Ec from Praha, Praha Hlavni Mesto, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 17/05/1944

Transport EC set out from Prague to Theresienstadt on May 17, 1944, with 24 Jews aboard. Survivor Chava Pressburger nee Ginz described her experiences as a fourteen-year-old girl on this transport in an interview in 1993. She stated that her parents tried to persuade the Germans that she was not Jewish because her mother had a lover who, like her, was not Jewish. Chava noted that many spouses of non-Jews in Prague attempted to avoid their children’s deportation in this manner. The Germans must have realized that this was a ruse because such cases recurred frequently and all of these children were ultimately deported. Chava added that apart from the children all of whom came from “mixed families”, ordinary Jewish prisoners were also on this transport. A study of the Theresienstadt records shows that the transport had indeed included six men aged 39–64, one woman aged 41, sixteen 14-year-olds, and one 16-year-old boy. It is unknown whether they were concentrated at an assembly site prior to their deportation. Continuing her testimony, Chava stated that the train was an ordinary passenger train and that the children were guarded by an armed German. Whenever they cried, he approached them to wipe away their tears because he claimed that he too had children at home....