Transport VII/3 from Duesseldorf, Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf), Rhine Province, Germany to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 25/06/1943

With so few Jews designated for this transport, it was decided not to give them prior notice; instead, Gestapo personnel took them by surprise in their homes a day before the transport and arrested them. Before being placed in custody, those designated for the transport were required to fill out property statements and pack their belongings (which were inspected first) and the money they would need. Forty-one Jews were designated for this transport but only thirty-two were actually deported. On June 3, 1943, the Jewish Affairs Department of Gestapo headquarters in Düsseldorf sent the RSHA Jewish Affairs desk a cable with a list of thirteen Jews who, according to the department, should not be deported. Seven of them are known to have been included in the next transport to Theresienstadt (VII/4), one escaped from that transport, and two were sent from Frankfurt to Theresienstadt on February 14, 1945, in Transport XII/10 and survived. Transport VII 3, unlike the previous transports for which the RSHA was responsible, was organized by Gestapo headquarters in Düsseldorf. On June 9, 1943, local headquarters advised the RSHA that the reservation of a special car (Sonderwaggon) had been coordinated with the Reichsbann administration in Wuppertal for June 16, 1943. Due to aerial bombardments on the night of June 11–12, 1943, in which the Gestapo building in Düsseldorf was damaged, the deportation was postponed to June 25, 1943. A cable dated June 11, 1943, sent out only on June 21, indicates that nine Jews were to be sent from Essen to Korsthorst. The Kripo (criminal police) had already obtained the “required property statements” from them. The Jews from Düsseldorf and other towns such as Duisburg and Krefeld had been concentrated in a collection point at the Jewish community building on the Bilker Straße. The third transport from Düsseldorf set out at 9:00 p.m. on June 25, 1943, and reached Theresienstadt at 2:30 p.m. on June 27....