Transport O from Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia to Riga, Ghetto, Latvia on 09/01/1942

The first transport to leave Theresienstadt was directed to Riga, and it was the only one whose real destination was made public – nonetheless, its purpose was veiled as a work assignment. The transport orders were handed to the camp commander, Siegfried Seidl from the Central Office for Jewish Emigration (Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung) in Prague, who passed them on to the Jewish leadership of the ghetto (Ältestenrat). On January 4, 1942, Eva Roubickova, a teenager in Theresienstadt, noted in her diary: "Everybody's upset. A transport is leaving here to Poland. Will we be in it? It's horrible. [...]. They called out names in the afternoon, and the following day the people had to be ready." Egon (Gonda) Redlich, head of the Children and Youth Department in the ghetto, also wrote in his diary that day: "In the evening, I heard a terrible piece of news. A transport will go from Terezin to Riga." On January 5, the Jewish Council announced in the Daily Order (Tagesbefehl) Nr. 20 that on January 9 a transport with 1,000 people would be dispatched to Riga. This is confirmed by Redlich who noted on January 5: "Our mood is very bad. We prepared for the transport. We worked practically all night. [...] we managed to spare the children." The transport, designated “O”, departed from Theresienstadt on January 9, 1942. At least 1,000 Theresienstadt inmates were on board, which had been deported to Theresienstadt from Prague and Brno. The average age was 45 years. According to historian Alfred Gottwaldt, although two deportees were under the age of 12, there was no one younger on board because the guidelines for this transport dictated that only Jews fit for labour were eligible....