Transport 61 from Berlin, Berlin (Berlin), City of Berlin, Germany to Bergen Belsen, Camp, Germany on 05/01/1945

This transport, was originally listed as the 61st to leave Berlin for the ghettos and killing sites in Eastern Europe, and was thus designated Osttransport 61. It departed on January 5, 1945. It included 21 deportees. Most transports leaving Berlin with the designation “Osttransport” have gone to Auschwitz, but this does not seem to be the case with this particular transport. On January 19, 1945, the Gestapo sent a list with names of the deportees to the Financial Authority (Oberfinanzpräsident), as it did after every transport. However, for Osttransport 61, unlike most transports, three lists were sent: one with names of male deportees, and one with names of female deportees, and a third one which listed three women, each with an underage child. In affidavits submitted in the 1960s, in preparation for the Bovensiepen trial, Fanny Schott, who was on the list of women, claims to have been sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, whereas Joseph Alfred, who was on the list of men, attests to having been sent to Sachsenhausen. These claims are backed by the information collected by the International Tracing Service. From the third, mixed list, Ilse Perl, Klaus Perl, Anna Goldbroch and Regina Joel testify to having been sent to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp in Lower Saxony. The deportees included in the later transports from Berlin to Auschwitz were typically 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. As the end of the war approached, the Germans began deporting the collaborators as well....