Transport IX/2, Train Da 508 from Breslau, Breslau (Breslau), Silesia (Lower), Germany to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 31/08/1942

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/2 departed from the Odertor train station during the night of the 30th or in the early morning of the 31st August 1942, and arrived at Theresienstadt on the 31st of August. It was the second of 12 transports consisting of elderly and otherwise privileged Jews from the province of Lower Silesia. The transport held 1065 Jews, all of whom were residents of the Breslau and Liegnitz districts. The transport included most of the elderly Jews who had been previously deported to the transit camps at Riebnig (Rybna), Tormersdorf (Zoar), and Grüssau (Krzeszów). For this transport, the Gestapo ordered a special train from the Reichsbahn which was given the reference DA 508. 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....