Transport 24, Train Da 205 from Wien, Vienna, Austria to Blagovshchina (Maly Trostenets Area), forest, Murder Site, Belorussia (USSR) on 02/06/1942

Transport No. 24, labeled Da205, departed from Aspangbahnhof in Vienna on June 2nd, 1942, arriving in Minsk on June 9th. The transport consisted of 1000 Jews, 244 of them were older than 61 years. The average age of the deportees was 49. The rail administration charged the SS 20.20 Reichsmark for each deportee. On June 4th, the train stopped at Wolkowysk, and all the deportees were transferred from the train's passenger cars to freight cars. On June 3rd, the central railroad administration gave notice that all of the trains with the symbol Da (the customary symbol for the trains used in deporting the Jews) would advance their departure from Wolkowysk to Koydanovo by one day. Consequently train Da 205 departed from Wolkowysk already on Thursday, June 4th. Because of the weekend vacation, the train remained at the rail station in Koydanovo under guard and with all the Jews on board. On June 9th, the train continued on its journey, reaching the freight rail station in Minsk. On arrival, a group of SD (Sicherheitsdienst) and Sipo (Sicherheitspolizei) men took charge of offloading the deportees and their baggage. The German security forces plundered anything of value that the Jews still had in their possession before selecting 20 to 50 men for forced labor. Most of these men were murdered at the end of July 1944. The remainder of the Jews was transported in trucks to open pits which had been dug in Blagovshchina forest, not far from the Maly Trostenets camp, where they were summarily murdered by the Waffen SS and Schutzpolizei men who had been awaiting their arrival. A part of the deportees was loaded on gas vans, which were put into operation that month, and murdered with engine exhaust gases.