Transport 42, Train Da 519 from Wien, Vienna, Austria to Theresienstadt, Ghetto, Czechoslovakia on 24/09/1942

Transport No. 42 departed from Aspangbahnhof in Vienna (Wien) at 7:25 pm on September 24, 1942. The transport contained 1,300 Jewish deportees. It was the eleventh transport of deportees from Vienna to Theresienstadt and, because it contained a large percentage of elderly people, it was referred to as Alterstransport (old people’s transport). Among the deportees was a major part of the staff of the Rothschild spital, like the nurse Alma Klüger together with her daughter Ruth Klüger (born 30.10.1931). 673 deportees were older than 61, the average age of the deportees was 58 years. Among the deportees there was a significant number of Jewish community leaders (Prominenten), including the President of the Jewish Community, Desider Friedman and a former Member of Parliament, Robert Stricker. Lieutenant Alois Wolf and five armed policemen were responsible for guarding the Jewish deportees throughout the journey. The guards had been ordered to report at noon at the station to which the deportees were taken. The train followed a route that passed through Vienna’s Nordbahnhof, Floridsdorf, Jedlersdorf, Stockerau, Absdorf-Hippersdorf, Gmuend, Tabor, Prague (Praha), and Bohusovice. On arrival at the station in Bohusovice, the Jews were forced to disembark from the train and walk about three kilometers to Theresienstadt, where the transport was noted in the ghetto records as IV/11; the Roman numeral IV representing Vienna The following is an excerpt from the testimony of Joy Singer:...