Transport I/86 from Berlin, Berlin (Berlin), City of Berlin, Germany to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 26/01/1943

During the month of January the Gestapo launched six “small” transports from Berlin to Theresienstadt, each consisting of 100 persons. This transport departed from Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin on 26 January 1943 and arrived in Theresienstadt in the early evening of the same day. The transport consisted of 100 Jews, of whom 56 were women and 44 were men. The average age of the deportees was 59.5. The youngest of them was 7 years old and the oldest was aged 87. Three of the deportees were under 12, two of them were between the ages of 13 and 18, fifteen of them were between 19 and 45, twenty-two were between 46 and 60, and fifty-four of the deportees were between the ages of 61 and 85. Four of the deportees were over 85 years old. Dr. Paul Eppstein, a leading member of the Reichsvereinigung who became chairman of the Ältestenrat in Theresienstadt, was also on this transport. Dr. Paul Eppstein [b. 4 March 1902 in Ludwigshafen – d. 27 or 28 September 1944 in Theresienstadt] studied sociology and graduated in 1924. Subsequently he worked as sociology lecturer and from 1929 was director of the Volkshochschule (Community Evening School) in Mannheim. In 1933 he was forced to step down and assumed the Chair of the Reich’s Deputation of the German Jews (Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden). There he became one of the most important negotiators with the authorities. From October 1940 onward, he was engaged in administrative matters after the Gestapo had prohibited his activities dealing with matters of emigration. He was arrested and released several times until he was deported to Theresienstadt on 26 January 1943 together with his wife, a social worker in the Jewish Youth Welfare Board. Eppstein succeeded Jakob Edelstein as Jewish Elder. His role in Theresienstadt is disputed. After the liberation, some former inmates claimed that he alienated himself from the other prisoners. Others valued the work he was able to do within the bounds of life in Theresienstadt as beneficial to the ghetto community. Eppstein was arrested and shot on 27 or 28 September 1944. His wife was deported to Auschwitz and murdered on 28 October in the gas chamber. 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....