Transport VII/2, Train Da 71 from Aachen, Aachen (Aachen), Rhine Province, Germany to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 25/07/1942

The train, assigned the reference Da71 and apparently consisting originally of six passenger cars, set out from Aachen at 9:25 a.m. on July 25, 1942. At 11:34, it reached the Düsseldorf-Derendorf freight station, where fourteen third-class passenger cars were coupled to it. It resumed its journey at 1:15 p.m. and reached Theresienstadt at 11:26 a.m. on July 26, 1942. On July 20, 1942, the Jewish Affairs Department of Gestapo headquarters in Düsseldorf circulated a document in fifty-two copies, Order 4/291/42g, which listed the stations that the train was to pass and the arrival and departure times at each stop. Reaching Theresienstadt, the train was assigned the reference VII/2 the Roman numeral VII indicating Düsseldorf as the origin. The deportation from Düsseldorf can be examined extensively because the transports from that city were more amply documented than those from elsewhere. On Friday, July 3, 1942, the RSHA advised Gestapo headquarters in Düsseldorf that there would be two transports of Jews from Düsseldorf to Theresienstadt, on July 21 and 25, 1942. On July 7, 1942, Eichmann’s aide, Rolf Günther, informed Gestapo headquarters in Düsseldorf that the Reichsbann had set aside two special trains for these transports. These first two transport trains were planned differently from the other transports from Düsseldorf to Theresienstadt due to the large number of deportees aboard them and due to their complexity. Supervision was provided concurrently by three general railroad administrations: east, west (in Essen), and south (in Munich) and Reichsbann administrations in different locations—in this case, Köln, Wuppertal, Essen, Kassel, Frankfurt am Main, Erfurt, and Dresden. Officials from the Reichsprotekorat and the railroad administration in Prague coordinated the transports on the basis of a standard schedule. Afterwards, schedules for the transport of the deportees to the collection point had to be planned and adjusted as required. Hermann Waldbillig, a police aide with the Gestapo, served as a liaison between the Gestapo and the Reichsbann administrations....