Transport from Duesseldorf, Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf), Rhine Province, Germany to Lodz, Ghetto, Poland on 27/10/1941

On October 1, 1941, the RSHA notified the Gestapo headquarters in Düsseldorf about the upcoming transport and, on October 6, a meeting was held of Gestapo-Düsseldorf headquarters with other representative from the Gestapo branches in Duisburg, Essen, Krefeld, Mönchengladbach, Wuppertal, and Oberhausen regarding its planning and execution. On October 11, the Jewish Affairs Desk at Gestapo-Düsseldorf sent the branches a circular with instructions. By October 24 the branches were to send Gestapo-Düsseldorf headquarters a systematic alphabetized list of the deportees with a statistical profile including their marital status, occupation, able-bodiedness, age, and sex. The Border Police in Emmerich, Kleve, and Kaldenkirchen also received the circular, which contained further instructions from Gestapo-Düsseldorf to the mayors of districts near the Dutch border. The document was signed by Kurt Venter, deputy head of Gestapo-Düsseldorf. In accordance with the RSHA guidelines, Jews from the northern Rhine province were left out of the transport as long as they belonged to one of the following groups: spouses in “mixed marriages,” those of foreign nationality (except those of Poland and Luxembourg), slave labourers for the war industry, and those aged sixty-eight or over. Some deportees signed up for the transport voluntarily so as not to be separated from family members. Most of the Jews designated for this deportation lived in the large towns in the region. The quotas were supposed to be 250 from each Düsseldorf and Essen, 200 from Wuppertal, 75 from Mönchengladbach, and 50 from each Duisburg, Krefeld, and Oberhausen. Seventy-five others lived in outlying areas....