Transport I/19 from Berlin, Berlin (Berlin), City of Berlin, Germany to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 09/07/1942

This transport departed from Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin on 9 July 1942 and arrived in Theresienstadt in the early evening of the same day. The transport consisted of 100 Jews, of whom 74 were women and 26 were men. The average age of the deportees was 68.8. The youngest was 19 years old, and the oldest was a 86 years old man. Seven among them were between 46 and 60 and ninety one between the ages of 61 and 85. The deportees were ordered to appear at the assembly camp in Grosse Hamburger Strasse or were taken from their homes by the Gestapo. A couple of Gestapo men, members of the Jewish desk, would usually show up, in order to round up the Jews destined for deportation. The Jews were requested to hand over the apartments in tidy form, after they had paid all taxes. The Gestapo men searched the deportees’ luggage, and the apartment, and often confiscated valuables. Subsequently they sealed the apartments. Jewish wardens who assisted the deportees in packing and carrying their belongings accompanied the Gestapo men. Trucks drove the Jews to the assembly site. This process usually took place one day prior to the actual deportation. At the assembly site the Jews were forced to sign a declaration, authorizing the transfer of their property to the state. As in previous transports, they were woken up on the day of deportation between two and three in the morning, received a simple breakfast prepared by the Jewish community and had to leave the building in Grosse Hamburger Strasse at approximately 04:00. They marched a few hundred meters to Monbijouplatz where a BVG streetcar (Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe - Berlin Transportation Company) awaited them. At around 05:00 they boarded the tram which transferred them expeditiously to Anhalter Bahnhof located on Schöneberger Strasse where they arrived by 05:15. There, through a side entrance, they were led to platform No. 1. They were ordered to board two old third-class rail cars, ordered from the Reichsbahn, which were connected to a regular, scheduled passenger train that left the train station every day at around 06:00 am for Dresden where it stopped for a few hours. On the first transports the deportees received a stew provided by the Dresden Jewish community. In Dresden the cars with the Jews were connected to another regular train headed for Prague....