Transport IX/1 from Breslau, Breslau (Breslau), Silesia (Lower), Germany to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 26/07/1942

The deportation of the elderly Jews of Breslau to transit camps in the rural areas of lower Silesia had already begun in July 1941, instigated by an edict from the Head of the regional NSDP branch (“Gauleiter”) Karl Hanke. In the autumn of 1941, Alfred Hampel, head of the Department of Jewish Affairs in the Breslau State Police Office, traveled to Berlin where he received guidelines and documents concerning the deportation of Jews to the East. Transport IX/1 departed from the Odertor train station sometime between July 25 and 26 1942, and arrived at Theresienstadt on July 27. It was the first of 12 transports consisting of elderly and otherwise privileged Jews from the province of Lower Silesia. This transport included 1100 Jews, residents of Breslau and other cities and towns of Lower Silesia some of whom had been previously deported to transit camps at Riebnig (Rybna), Tormersdorf (Zoar), and Grüssau (Krzeszów). Prior to the assembly of the transport, the Head of the Department of Jewish Affairs sent notifications to the State Police Branches (“Aussendienststellen”) of other cities in the province, asking for certain individuals to be brought to the assembly sites in Breslau. The residents of Breslau who were on this transport were arrested and registered at their homes by uniformed police and NSDAP activists, and were then brought by trucks to the assembly sites. If they were not found, a manhunt would be initiated....