Transport F from Brno, Brno Hlavni Mesto, Moravia-Silesia, Czechoslovakia to Minsk, Ghetto, Belorussia (USSR) on 21/11/1941

On November 16, Transport F, Train Da 55, departed from Brno (Brün) to Minsk. This was the sixth transport to depart from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to Eastern Europe. It was comprised of 1,000 deportees, many of them were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Austria, who had been previously imprisoned in the Spilbrek fortress. According to a report compiled by the Jewish community (Kultus Gemeinde) in Praha (Prague), prior to their deportation, the Jews had to report to an assembly site situated in a local school building on Mehrtautova Street, on November 13. They remained there for three days. The deportees were driven by buses at two o’clock in the morning on November 16 to the train station. Their luggage was placed in a separate car and was never seen again. They were permitted to take their handbags and bedding into the passenger cars. According to a post war testimony given by Leo Herzog, the journey lasted four and a half days. The train made its first stop in Prerov (Prerau), where local Jews supplied the deportees with tea and baked goods. After an eight-hour layover, the train continued its journey, traveling through Częstochowa, Warsaw, Brest Litvosk, and Baranowitischi, en route to Minsk. The deportees were allowed to get drinking water for their cars at every stop. According to Herzog, the rail cars were well heated....