Transport from Volos, Larissa, Thessaly, Greece to Larissa, Larissa, Thessaly, Greece on 24/03/1944

The deportation of the Jews of Volos occurred five months later as a part of plan that included the deportation of Jews living in mainland Greece and the Islands. The deportation was put into effect by the SS during the night of March 24, 1944. They went from door to door, arrested the Jews, ordered them into trucks, and took them to Larissa. On that night, around 130 Jews were arrested. In Larissa, the Jews of Volos were detained together with other Jews from the cities of Trikala, Ioannina, and Larissa. Rachel Esdra, from Ioannina, attests: "There [in the Larissa camp] we met Jews from Trikala, Larissa and Volos". The deportees were detained under harsh conditions in a bus parking lot and were guarded by German guards. There were no toilets and no place to lie down. They were forced to relinquish any valuables they had brought with them. On either April 3 or 4, the Jews of Volos, joined by those of Trikala, Ioannina, and Larissa, were again ordered to board trucks that took them to the Larissa railway station. There, they received food parcels distributed by the Red Cross. Then they boarded freight cars that were attached to trains coming from Athens going north that carried Jews from the cities of Arta, Preveza, Patra, and Chalkis. The train, now with around 5,200 deportees, was destined for Auschwitz-Birkenau. During the long journey lasting approximately six days, the deportees had to endure intense cold, starvation, and humiliation. Each car contained around 70 people and had only one small window covered with a grid and two buckets inside; one contained water and the other was designated to serve as a toilet. The wagons were so full that there was no place to sit. "They brought the trains and they put us on the trains, cattle trains with one little hole. A bucket for a toilet, one on top of each other, like sardines, sitting with our knees bent", recalls Allegra Korman who was on this transport....