Transport from Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece to Bergen Belsen, Camp, Germany on 02/08/1943

The 19th transport from Thessaloniki departed on August 2, 1943 for the Bergen-Belsen camp. A total of 441 Jews were included in this transport, among them 367 Spanish nationals who were later released and went on to Spain, and 74 former officials of the Jewish community administration. Earlier, on July 15, 350 Jews who had their Italian citizenship recognized were transferred to Athens by the Italian Consulate in Thessaloniki. Edgard Counio, who was deported on this same transport, testified at Thessaloniki Military Administration Counselor Max Merten's investigation in Berlin in 1961: "On August 2, 1943 the second to last transport [from Thessaloniki] set off. I was taken to Bergen-Belsen along with more than 60 Jews including our Chief Rabbi Dr. Koretz.” On July 28, 1943 all Jews of Spanish citizenship were ordered to gather at the Beth-Saul Synagogue. SS-Hauptsturmführer Dieter Wisliceny announced that they would be deported to Germany prior to their repatriation to Spain. Gestapo and SS officers led them from the Beth Saul Synagogue to the Baron Hirsch ghetto. "Life was so horrible in this camp that the Jews preferred death rather than to stay there", recalls Jack Rebach in his post war memoirs. "On August 2, 1943, after having stripped us of our jewels, money and our few belongings, they packed us in freight cars and we left for an unknown destination."...