Transport I/65, Train Da 514 from Berlin, Berlin (Berlin), City of Berlin, Germany to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 14/09/1942

This was the second large transport and one of four transports with nearly or over 1,000 persons from Berlin to Theresienstadt. Unlike the smaller transports, this one departed not from Anhalter Bahnhof, but from Berlin-Moabit (Putlitzstrasse) train station on 14 September 1942 and arrived a day later in Theresienstadt. A train was ordered by the Gestapo and provided by Deutsche Reichsbahn under the designation Da 514. The transport consisted of 1000 Jews, of whom 693 were women and 306 were men. The average age of the deportees was 71.6. The youngest was an infant, less than a year old, and the oldest was 90 years old. Eight of them were between the ages of 19 and 45, fifty nine were between 46 and 60, and nine hundred and sixteen of the deportees were between the ages of 61 and 85. Fifteen of the deportees were over 85 years old. Most of the deportees were held in the assembly camp at Grosse Hamburger Strasse. The remaining inhabitants of the Jewish old-age home in Iranische Strasse were also on that train together with inhabitants from the home for the blind and the deaf in Berlin-Weissensee. 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. The procedure of dispatching this 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 morning onwards until everyone had been registered and counted. This procedure lasted until the evening when the train finally left Berlin. They traveled all night long and arrived in Theresienstadt the next morning....