Transport, Train Da 36 from Nuernberg, Nürnberg (Nürnberg), Bavaria, Germany to Izbica, Krasnystaw, Lublin, Poland on 24/03/1942

The transport left Nuremberg on March 24, 1942 and arrived on March 27 at the transit ghetto in Izbica, located on the Lublin–Belzec railway line in the General Government (Poland). This was the second of seven deportations of Franconian Jews from Nuremberg to ghettos and extermination camps in the East. At the beginning of March, this deportation train – Sonderzug (special train) "Da 36" – had been reserved by the RSHA from the Reichsbahn destined for Trawniki. However, according to Alfred Gottwaldt, by March 19, the transport's destination had been changed to Izbica (Lubelska), in Lublin County (occupied Poland, Generalgouvernement).

The Nuremberg-Fuerth Gestapo, under the command of Dr. Benno Martin and his deputy Dr. Theodor Grafenberger, was in charge of all deportations from Franconia (northern Bavaria, known at the time as Main Franconia). On March 18, Grafenberger summoned a meeting to prepare for the upcoming transport. After the first deportation from Nuremberg in November 1941 to Riga, and the near annihilation of the local Jewish community, the Gestapo, namely Christian Woesch, the right hand of Grafenberger, could no longer assemble the 1,000 deportees required by the RSHA guidelines. As a result, the Wuerzburg Gestapo was obliged to enlist 170 additional Jews from their city and 170 from the administrative districts of Kitzingen, Ochsenfurt and Karlstadt. Their transport to Nuremberg was conducted under Michael Völkl, deputy chief to Ernst Gramowski and head of the Jewish desk at the Wuerzburg Gestapo. Schutzpolizei (Schupo, the municipal police), Landräte (district administrators), and mayors as well as policemen were also involved in the implementation of the transports from these places to Nuremberg.

On February 2, the Wuerzburg Gestapo sent a list to the Nuremburg branch totaling 2,006 Jews from several townlets and villages living under their administration. However, not all of them were considered eligible for this deportation and so were not included in the transport. According to the deportation guidelines of the RSHA, which reached the Wuerzburg Gestapo on March 22, persons considered eligible for deportation were all those defined as Jews according to the Nuremberg laws. At this time, Jews who were generally excluded from the transport were those who were married to non-Jewish partners, as well as their children, and Jews who were employed in the German armament industry. Jews over the age of 65, war invalids, or Jews decorated with the Iron Cross would be sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto (Terezin) from June 1942 onwards, and were thus also not yet deported. The general RSHA guidelines recommended that Gestapo branches force the Reich Association of Jews in Germany and local Jewish leaders to assist in preparing the transports and provide names and adresses of Jews who were eligible for transport according to specified criteria. As soon as the Gestapo offices obtained this information, they passed on copies of the deportation list to the local Department for Jewish Affairs....