Transport, Train Da 6 from Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt a. Main (Wiesbaden), Hesse-Nassau, Germany to Lodz, Ghetto, Poland on 20/10/1941

Deportation train "Da 6" from Frankfurt to the Lodz ghetto was the first transport to leave the city. Jakob Sprenger, Gauleiter (district party leader) of Hesse-Nassau, had set himself the task to make his Gau (the Nazi equivalent to province or state) and especially Frankfurt “judenfrei” (Free of Jews) as quickly as possible. The train, which had been used for the first transport from Prague to Lodz on October 16, 1941 and had been directed back as empty train "LpDa102" via Erfurt to Frankfurt South on October 20, 1941, departed Frankfurt instantly and arrived in Lodz one day later, on October 21, 1941. This occurred before the Wannsee-conference in January 1942. The implementation of this deportation was more chaotic than those transports that were to follow and it was carried out with the help of the local SA, which would not be the case thereafter.

The deportation register of the Frankfurt Gestapo lists 1,125 names for this transport from Frankfurt. Indeed between 1,113 and 1,180 Jews were deported in October to Lodz. Among the deportees were whole families with children, elderly people above 65, and veterans of WWI. In an independent action, following a secret directive from the Dusseldorf Gestapo dated October 11, 1941, the Frankfurt Gestapo also deported Jews who worked as slave labourers in the German armament industry. In doing so, they infringed upon RSHA deportation orders and upset the industry, which did not want to lose its cheap workforce. The RHSA guidelines stated, that Jews employed by the armament industry, living in mixed marriages, Jews of foreign nationality (except Polish or Luxembourg citizens) and those above the age of 68 were to be exempt from the transport.

This first deportation from Frankfurt came as a surprise to the Jews. Survivor Lina Katz, who worked for the Jewish Community from May 1937 until she was deported to Theresienstadt in August 1942, recalled in her postwar memoirs that rumors of the upcoming transport began circulating only after the Gestapo, headed by Oberregierungsrat and SS-Obersturmbannführer Oswald Poche, had ordered the Community to rework the Community's card file. Shortly after, the Jewish Community got back a list with approximately 1,200 names. On October 17, 1941, the Gestapo summoned Rabbi Leopold Neuhaus and the board of the Jewish Community and ordered them under threat of sanctions to publicly deny the rumors pertaining to an upcoming transport – an order that was issued during the subsequent Sabbath prayer services. On the following Sunday morning, October 19, 1941, armed SA men entered the apartments of the Jews without any warning. Lina Katz recalls in her 1961 memoir: "On Sunday morning at 7 o'clock, the persons on the Gestapo list were taken out of their apartments by the SA. They had very little time to pack a few things under ward [...]." Survivor Friedrich (Fritz) Schafranek recalled in 1998, that the Gestapo gave him and his family two hours to get ready and that his father, "[...] at the moment we were arrested, was a broken man." A report dated October 16, 1941 written by the official responsible for the SA action states: "Removal (Abtransport) of 1,000 Jews on Sunday, October 19, 1941, from Frankfurt/M. to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto [Lodz]. Here too, the SA supplies 250 proper, solid SA-men. Clothing: uniform with pistol [...]. After inventory of the apartments, etc., the Jews will be taken to the assembly site at the cellar wholesale market. They are allowed to bring 100 RM and 100 Kg material assets; food, etc., will be handed over to the WHW [Winterhilfswerk, National Socialist Winter Aid Campaign]." In another report from October 21, 1941, the head of the SA-Sturmbann III/63 wrote: "180 men of the Standard 63 were at the Palmengarten at 5:30 in the morning of the 19.10.41 in accordance with the orders.” The 100 RM permitted per person had to be handed over to the Lodz Gestapo upon arrival in the ghetto. The deported Jews mostly resided in Frankfurt's prestigious Westend quarter. That is why historians like Wolfgang Wippermann and Monica Kingreen have pointed out the National Socialist economic interests behind the geographical radius targeted by this first transport. The deportees were taken out of their apartments or out of one of the 300 “Judenhaus” (Jew Houses) like the one at No. 14 Gaustreet, to which some of the deportees had been forced to move earlier. As in other cities, suicide attempts amongst the Jewish community increased in Frankfurt prior to deportation. All Jews deported from Germany were automatically subject to expropriation. They were required to hand over their apartment keys to the authorities. The Jewish Affairs Department of the Gestapo ("Judenreferat"), headed by Kriminalrat (police detective) Ernst Grosse, searched their homes and luggage and confiscated all valuables. Subsequently the apartments were sealed. According to the Gestapo guidelines, the Jews had to hang a sign around their necks with their name, birthday and deportation number. The last sentence on the order threatened punishment in the case of any resistance. A handout from the Frankfurt Gestapo to its duty officers issued the following guidelines: "You must carry out this order with all the necessary toughness, correctness and accuracy that is required [...] The Jews will try to manipulate you by request or threat. Or they will be stubborn. Do not allow yourselves to be influenced in any way."...