Transport XVIII/8 from Katowice, Katowice, Slask, Poland to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 21/03/1944

This Transport departed from the Katowice train station on March 21, 1944 and arrived at Theresienstadt on the same day. It was the last of 10 transports comprising of elderly Jews and others from the province of Upper Silesia who had until now been protected from deportation, and the only such transport that did not depart from the provincial capital of Oppeln. The transport consisted of 22 Jews. Very little is known about the deportees. Based on the transport’s point of departure and on the age and gender distribution of the deportees, it may be assumed that these were Jews from the once-prosperous communities of Kattowitz (Katowice), Gleiwitz (Gliwice) and Beuthen (Bytom) who were married to non-Jewish partners and were either divorced or widowed.
Presumably, several days prior to the deportation, the deportees were notified by the Gestapo. They were ordered to report to an assembly point in Katowice, to settle their bills and debts, and bring a limited amount of luggage.
At the assembly point, they were registered and forced to sign a declaration relinquishing their entire property to the state. Later, they were taken to a train platform in Katowice or its immediate vicinity, escorted by Gestapo personnel and uniformed police. There, they were forced to enter a passenger car that was attached to a regular passenger train. The train’s route was presumably to Oppeln, Breslau, from there to Dresden and finally to the newly-constructed Theresienstadt station....