Transport V/1 from Dresden, Dresden (Dresden Bautzen), Saxony, Germany to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 01/07/1942

The first of these transports departed from Dresden on 1 July 1942 and arrived in Theresienstadt later the same day. Almost all of the 50 deportees on this transport had previously lived in the Jewish old-age home, which was annexed to the “Jew House” (Judenhaus) at Zeughausstrasse1 in Dresden. The deportees were between 57 and 92 years old. Apart from Martin Mutschmann, there were other key figures involved in the execution of this transport: the head of Gestapo Dresden, Wili Müller-Metz, authorized it while Henry Schmidt, the head of the Dresden Department for Jewish Affairs in the RSHA was likely the person most involved in the deportations of Jews from the city. Schmidt was present in the assembly camps and even accompanied two or three transports to Theresienstadt. The RSHA’s guidelines recommended that Gestapo units force the Reich Association of Jews in Germany and local Jewish communities to assist in preparing the transports. In Dresden Dr. Kurt Hirschel was responsible for this task. He was the last administrative director of the city’s Jewish community until his deportation in June 1943. The Gestapo required him to provide lists of local Jews according to criteria such as age groups....