Transport from Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 23/03/1943

The fourth transport to leave Thessaloniki departed on March 23, 1943. Around 2,500 Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Mosche Cohen was deported on this transport with his entire family: “We were crammed into cattle cars. That’s when it became clear to everyone that it wasn’t what we thought. A wagon which should have held 20 people carried 80 including patients they had taken from the hospitals and the insane asylums. They made sure to have one in each wagon… It was impossible to breathe. It lasted seven days. It was hell. The children, the sick, the insane, all cried to the sky.” According to Danuta Czech's Auschwitz Chronicle, 2,501 Jews arrived with this transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau on March 30, 1943. Upon arrival at Auschwitz, 312 men were admitted and tattooed with numbers 111147-111458. 141 women were also admitted and tattooed with the numbers 39623-39763. The remaining Jews were murdered in the gas chambers immediately upon arrival.