Transport from Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 15/03/1943

On March 15, 1943, the first of nineteen transports left Thessaloniki for Auschwitz. Joseph Echoua who was on this first transport recalls that, two days before departure, Rabbi Dr. Koretz, the head of the Jewish Council hastily summoned the community administration and a special commission in order to attempt to save their fellow Jews. It was decided that a ransom would be collected totaling half of the Jews’ fortune to negotiate with the Germans. However, this was done in vain as the Military Commander of Thessaloniki Max Merten refused the offer. On March 14, 1943, Rabbi Koretz was summoned by the Security Service office and told to inform the inmates at the Baron Hirsch ghetto of their immediate departure to Krakow, Poland. “We were all summoned to the synagogue in the Baron Hirsch neighborhood, where they announced our imminent departure for Krakow… everyone beat their breast in woe, lamenting their misfortune”, recalls Echoua. The transport left at 11 o’clock in the morning. The deportees were allowed to carry a certain amount of the Polish zloty that was purchased in exchange for Greek drachmas. They were strictly forbidden to carry gold, other currencies, or precious stones. The tickets, paid for by liquidating their own property, were delivered to the Jews by functionaries of the Greek State Railways which dispatched the trains from Greece. The first transport left Thessaloniki railway station with approximately 2,800 Jews in 40 cattle cars with around 70 people in each car. The train arrived in Auschwitz after 5 days. On the day of departure the German Consul General sent a letter to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin describing the successful operation: "The expulsion of the approx. 56,000 Jews with Greek citizenship began today with the deportation of around 2,600 people from Thessaloniki. Four transports per week are scheduled to depart so that the whole operation will be completed within six weeks"....