Transport 51 from Berlin, Berlin (Berlin), City of Berlin, Germany to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 18/04/1944

This transport, the 51st to leave Berlin for the ghettos and killing sites in Eastern Europe (and thus designated Osttransport 51), departed on April 18, 1944, and arrived in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp the next day. It included 31 deportees. The deportees included in the later transports from Berlin to Auschwitz were often Jewish spouses in so-called “mixed marriages” who lost their protection due to divorce or death of the non-Jewish spouse, or who were suspected of violating the anti-Jewish regulations. Another group of deportees consisted of Jews who lived illegally in hiding and were caught, often due to their denunciation by German civilians or Jewish collaborators. Occasionally, Jewish prisoners were transferred from civilian prisons and put on such transports. There is little information available regarding this transport. Presumably, on the day of deportation, the deportees were ordered into a closed cattle car which was attached to a regular train. A guard unit, usually composed of two SS men, was usually posted in the control compartment. The train went to Auschwitz via Breslau (Wroclaw) and Kattowitz (Katowice). However, before arriving at Breslau, the train stopped at Sagan (Zagan), where two young female deportees made a successful escape....