Transport, Train Da 18 from Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt a. Main (Wiesbaden), Hesse-Nassau, Germany to Sobibor, Extermination Camp, Poland on 11/06/1942

Those Jews selected for deportation were notified in writing on June 7, 1942, that they had to be ready for deportation on the morning of the departure date and that they had to fill out an inventory of their assets, all of which would then be seized. The deportees were only allowed to take 50 RM with them, which was used to pay for the deportation costs, a suitcase or backpack weighing up to 50 kilograms, a set of clothes, suitable shoes, bedding, tableware and food supplies for two weeks. As in other cities, suicide attempts among the Jewish community in Frankfurt increased prior to deportation. On June 11, 1942, 1,254 Jews were deported from Frankfurt – a considerably larger number than the usual 1,000 deportees per train, the quota required by Eichmann. The transport included 619 Jews from Frankfurt, 371 from Wiesbaden and 264 from the various districts around these two cities. According to testimonies from at least 21 persons, Jews who had been living in the districts of Rheingau or St. Goarshausen and who had already been taken to the Friedrichssegen/Tagschaft labour camp were now also deported via Frankfurt. From the district of Unterwesterwaldkreis and Oberlahnkreis, only one Jew is listed from each, demonstrating that the Nazi regime aimed to make this region “judenfrei” (Free of Jews) and to annihilate these once lively Jewish communities. The deportation targeted men, women and children from all age groups alike. Whole families with elderly spouses as well as children and infants were deported. The youngest, from Wiesbaden had not even turned eight months old. All transports from Wiesbaden actually departed from Frankfurt, because Wiesbaden was under the responsibility of the Frankfurt Gestapo. However, the Department for Jewish Affairs ("Judenreferat") in Wiesbaden, foremost Walter Bodewig, carried out the transports from the city. This transport, on June 11, 1942, was the largest deportation from Wiesbaden and most of the younger Jews still remaining in the city were included. Elderly people, forced labourers and veterans of the First World War would be deported to Theresienstadt (Terezin) near Prague (Praha) from August 1942 onwards....