Transport 26 from Berlin, Berlin (Berlin), City of Berlin, Germany to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 12/01/1943

This transport was the 26th to leave Berlin for the ghettos and killing sites in Eastern Europe and was thus designated “Osttransport 26”. It departed from the city’s Putlitzstrasse Station in the Moabit district on January 12, 1943 and arrived at Auschwitz the following day. Historians Gottwald and Meyrhoefer estimate the number of Jews on this transport at 1,196. Among them were 74 persons belonging to various age groups from the Jewish hospital located at Auguststrasse 17. Additionally, elderly Jews who had not been transported to Theresienstadt were included in this transport. Among them was the 65-year old author Else Ury who gained fame through her popular “Nesthäkchen” book series for girls. The Jews were kept in assembly camps spread throughout Berlin for some days prior to deportation. At these assembly sites the Jews were forced to sign a declaration authorizing the transfer of their property to the State. On the day of their deportation the deportees were ordered into a train consisting of closed freight cars. A guard unit, usually composed of two SS men, was usually posted in the control compartment. The train usually went to Auschwitz via Breslau (Wroclaw) and Kattowitz (Katowice), but the constant strain put on the German railway system might have caused individual transports to take other routes. Historian Danuta Czech notes in the Auschwitz Chronicles that a transport organized by the RSHA arrived in Auschwitz on January 13.. . It consisted of 1,000 Jewish men, women and children originating from various cities in Germany. Upon arrival outside the Auschwitz camp complex, the deportees were subject to a selection process carried out by the SS. 127 men were given Nos. 86567-866962 and sent to the camp. The remaining 898 deportees, including the above mentioned Else Ury, were sent directly to the gas chambers at Birkenau (Auschwitz II) and murdered. The other deportees were sent to forced labour under harsh conditions which they rarely survived. According to historian Rita Meyhoefer only two of the deportees are known to have survived.