Transport from Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 19/03/1943

The third transport to leave Thessaloniki departed on March 19, 1943. 1,901 Jews were deported to Auschwitz. These Jews had been transferred to the Baron Hirsch ghetto from the Regie Vardar ghetto prior to their deportation. Lea Molho who was on this transport recalls: “A day before they took us ... they closed down the whole neighborhood. They told us: take only a few basic things that you need, not much, because there is no room and we are going to Poland, and there - do not to worry, we will take good care of you... We were taken to Baron Hirsch... like dogs we were put inside, without food or water...” After a few days in the ghetto, Lea was deported with her family: “Time came for deportation. They took us on a transport, putting us in like dogs...90-100 people per horse car, barely space to sit unconfortably. We were there seven days... We were loaded onto the cars like cockroaches. They had placed a box of jam with nothing else, no water. We were told: this is your food. So what will we eat? where will we pee? where will we do everything? There is no space. So we spilled out the jam in order to pee in the jar. Seven days...until we got to Poland. We got there already full of lice and dirt. They told us to keep our belongings, and that we would take a shower and they would take us to where we will stay.” Dr. Leon Cuenca, a physician from the Italian consulate and affiliated with the Committee of the International Red Cross for Thessaloniki, had been abducted with his family by the Gestapo during the night of March 18. Max Merten, German civil administrator for Thessaloniki, used the disappearance of Cuenca to further persecute the Jews of the ghetto. He issued a directive to the Jewish community declaring that because Dr. Cuenca had fled, 25 Jews were to be taken hostage and shot in the event of any other attempts to escape. Furthermore, strict curfews were set for the Jews of the ghetto. Dr. Cuenca and his family were in fact included in the transport that left Thessaloniki for Auschwitz on March 19....