Transport X/1, Train Da 72 from Dortmund, Dortmund (Arnsberg), Westphalia, Germany to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 29/07/1942

The list of deportees from the city of Dortmund was comprised from a card index of names held by the local Jewish community. In this way the Gestapo was able to force the Jewish community to participate in the deportation of its own members. On July 17, the Jewish community summoned the deportees, and added a few words meant to ease their anxiety: “We were informed by the authorities that this is a privileged transport, and that the addressee and his family members will be provided with room and board at the destination.” The deportees also had to transfer a sum amounting to at least 25% of their bank accounts to the Jewish community’s account at the Deutsche Bank. . The deportees also had to declare their assets, and they were instructed to leave their apartments clean and tidy. According to the directive, they were allowed to take personal affects weighing up to 30kg. The Jewish community was supposed to transfer the luggage using the Franz Wiechers transportation company located at Saarlandstrasse 21 in Dortmund. In order to conceal the actual purpose of the transports, the elderly Jews were required to sign a contract for the purchase of a housing unit (Heimeinkaufsvertrag) in Theresienstadt. At times, they were encouraged to pay larger sums in order to improve their future living conditions at their destination. The Reich Association of Jews in Germany eventually transferred these funds to the Gestapo. Thus, the Jews funded their own deportation, and, in effect, their destruction. Transporting the Jews posed a logistic difficulty to the German authorities, requiring them to coordinate between different organizations and track the availability of empty trains. The Jews from neighboring municipalities were first assembled together, and then taken to Dortmund using different means of transportation. For example, in Iserlohn the Jews were first assembled at the police station on the basis of lists that the Gestapo sent to the Mayor; they were later transported by the Schupo (Police, Schutzpolizei) to Dortmund. Similarly in Sundern: the Jews from this area were first concentrated in a barracks camp in Neheim-Huesten together with forced labourers who were brought from France and eastern Europe. On Saturday, July 25, the few Jews who remained in Schwarzenau were taken to Dortmund in an ambulance, and the Jews of Laasphe were taken to Berleburg by a bus belonging to the Messerschmitt Company on the morning of July 27. At Berleburg, the bus collected the local Jews as well and continued to the assembly site in Dortmund. The luggage belonging to the deportees from Laasphe was sent to Dortmund as early as July 23....