Transport I/46, Train Da 502 from Berlin, Berlin (Berlin), City of Berlin, Germany to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 17/08/1942

This was the first large transport and one of four transports from Berlin to Theresienstadt with nearly or over 1,000 persons. Unlike the smaller transports, this one departed not from Anhalter Bahnhof, but from Berlin-Mobabit (Putlitzstrasse) train station on 17 August 1942 and arrived a day later in Theresienstadt. A train was ordered by the Gestapo and provided by Deutsche Reichsbahn under the designation Da 502. The transport consisted of 997 Jews, of whom 734 were women and 263 were men. The average age of the deportees was 75.3. The youngest of them was a boy aged 15, and the oldest was 93 years old. Four of them were between the ages of 19 and 45, fourteen between the ages of 46 and 60, and 936 were between 61 and 85. Forty two of the deportees were over 85 years old. 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. Most of the deportees were held in the assembly camp at Grosse Hamburger Strasse. On that train there were also 165 inhabitants from the Jewish old age home on Gerlachstrasse Nos. 18-21 and residents of the old age homes on Schönhauser Allee 22, Brunnenstrasse 41, Gormannstrasse 3 and Artilleriestrasse 31. The procedure of dispatching the transport was different from the smaller transports. As usual, the deportees received a simple breakfast prepared by Jewish community, but they were brought by trucks to the train station where they had to wait for hours from the morning onward until everyone was registered and counted. This procedure lasted until the evening when the train left Berlin. They traveled all night long and arrived in Theresienstadt the next morning....