Transport Rum from Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia to Bergen Belsen, Camp, Germany on 17/05/1944

Between May 15 and May 18, 1944, as part of the preparations for the visit of a Red Cross delegation to the Theresienstadt ghetto, more than 7,500 ghetto inmates were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the midst of these transports, on May 17, 1944, a small transport of 5 people left Theresienstadt for Bergen-Belsen. Five Czech Jews were on board, two of whom had previously been deported from Prague. The other three had been deported from Brno. The reason for their transfer on this transport is unknown; it is possible that they were in possession of foreign immigration papers, and thus could be considered for future exchanges. Similar small transports from Thereisenstadt were conducted by means of a passenger car which was attached to a regular passenger train at the Bohusovice (Bauschowitz) station, some 3km from the ghetto. The inmates probably had to disembark at a distant platform or at the nearby town of Celle. From there, they were taken by car or marched to nearby Bergen-Belsen. Since none of the chroniclers of the other sections of Bergen-Belsen recorded the arrival of Theresienstadt inmates at the time, it may be assumed that they were placed in the "Neutrals' Camp", together with Polish Jews from Warsaw, Cracow and Lviv (Lvov, Lemberg) who possessed foreign passports or "promesas" (promises of citizenship of a South American state) and who had arrived on the first transports to Bergen-Belsen. In that section of the camp, the inmates were interned under relatively good conditions and were not employed in forced labour....