Transport, Train Da 27 from Weimar, Weimar (Weimar), Thuringia, Germany to Belzyce, Lublin, Lublin, Poland on 10/05/1942

The deportation train with the number “Da 27” to the Belzyce ghetto, a small townlet 27 kilometers southwest of Lublin in the General Government was the first transport from Weimar. In March 1942, the Gestapo had ordered the train from the Reichsbahn (the German railroad company) scheduled for Trawniki. However, at the end of April 1942, the timetable for the transport had been changed to accommodate rerouting via Leipzig and the destination of Izbica. According to the Reichsbahn’s day-schedule (Tagesverzeichnis der Reisesonderzüge) the deportation train originated in Weimar where the main assembly point for the deportation of the Jews from Thuringia was located. However, Leipzig was another city through which many of the deportees from Saxony were taken en route to the General Government. The final destination of the train was determinated only after its depature on May 10, 1942 from Weimar (Thuringia) via Leipzig (Saxony). Two days later, on May 12, 1942, the deportees from Thuringia and Saxony arrived in Belzyce. However, at least one person on the transport seems to have been taken to the Lublin ghetto. Apart from Martin Mutschmann, the Gauleiter (district party leader) of Saxony, there were other key figures involved in the implementation of this transport: The head of the Gestapo office in Leipzig, Ernst Kaussmann, as well as his colleagues in Weimar (Gustav vom Felde) and Chemnitz (Johannes Thümmler) oversaw this transport. The head of the Judenreferat (Jewish Desk) at the Leipzig Gestapo, Paul Zenner was in charge of the deportation. Stadtamtmann (City Official) Kurt Voigt and his co-worker Felix Gerbhardt were responsible for local Jewish policies. Their direct superior was Botho Furch, personal aide to the mayor of Leipzig, Alfred Freyberg. In his New Years’ address on January 14, 1942, Freyberg, with full knowledge of the deportations from Leipzig, announced: “It is to be hoped that the number of Jews [in Leipzig] will be reduced significantly during the coming year.” Furch, as the head of the "office for the Promoting of Housing" (Amt zur Förderung des Wohnungsbaus) – an institution obviously working on behalf of the Non-Jewish citizens, was responsible for the forced concentration of Leipzig’s Jewish citizens into "Jew houses” (“Judenhäuser”). Together with Voigt and Gerbhardt, he coordinated their move from the “Jew Houses” to the deportation site. Houses in which Jews were concentrated and isolated had been set up in Germany since 1939 by the Nazi authorities independently of the deportation process but were increasingly used during its course. In Leipzig alone up to 40 of these houses were set up in the city center. Paula Stern, who left Arnstadt for Berlin before the deportation, remembers how her family was forced to move into one of these in Arnstadt where they had to share one room with two other families. Jews still living in their own homes had to mark their door with a black Jewish Star (“Judenstern”). The day before deportation, the men, women and children were not allowed to leave their homes. They were ordered to appear at the assembly site or were taken from their homes by the Gestapo. Identification papers were taken from the Jews, which were then stamped with a deportation number. Attempted suicides became regular occurrences amongst the Jewish community in 1942....