Transport from Koeln, Köln (Köln), Rhine Province, Germany to Lodz, Ghetto, Poland on 22/10/1941

The transport from Köln on October 22, 1941, was the first of eighteen transports originating from the area and overseen by the Gestapo headquarters in Köln. Before the transport, 6,277 Jews, as defined under the Nuremberg Laws, lived in Köln and another 1,400 lived in the general vicinity. The municipal plan was that Köln should be Judenfrei (“Jew-free”) by year’s end. The local Gauleiter, Josef Grohe, put pressure on his superordinates to expedite the deportation of Jews from Köln. For this purpose, he sent the head of the Gestapo in the city, Emanuel Schaeffer, and the chief of the Greater Köln subdistrict Alfons Schaller, to Berlin where they were informed of the impending deportations to the east. At this time, the superintendent for Jewish affairs at Gestapo headquarters in Köln, Jean Brodesser, was also informed about the plans for the first deportation of Jews from Köln set for October 21 in a meeting arranged by Eichmann.
After he returned to Köln, Brodesser ordered the head of the Jewish community, Bernhard, to report to his office and draw up a deportation list with the names of 1,000 Jews within twenty-four hours. Bernhard and other community employees also had to notify the deportees of the impending transport and to order them to fill out an inventory of their properties. These Jews were required to report, to the northern hall of the fairgrounds in Deutz at 6:00 a.m. on October 21.
Dr. Herbert Lewin, a Holocaust survivor, wrote about his ordeal in 1955:...