Transport, Train Da 219 from Koeln, Köln (Köln), Rhine Province, Germany to Maly Trostenets, Camp, Belorussia (USSR) on 20/07/1942

On July 14, 1942, the Jewish Affairs Department (IVB4) of Gestapo headquarters in Köln sent out a circular to the mayors of Euskirchen, Bergheim, Siegburg, Gummersbach, Köln, and Bergisch-Gladbach regarding the impending transport. Attached to the document was a list of deportees. The mayors were told that the Jews had been informed of the deportations and that it was now the mayors’ responsibility to make sure that they report to the “fairgrounds hospitality hall” between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on July 19. The Department also demanded the inclusion of additional Jews on the list of potential deportees: those aged 65 and below, war casualties, and those who had been decorated for heroism.
The Rhineland branch of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (National Association of Jews in Germany) advised the Jews of the impending transports but did not report the destination. Those designated for transport had to hand over unused ration cards and the keys to their apartments, pay 50 Reichsmarks, and pack three days’ worth of food for the journey. Shortly before the transport, they were told exactly when and where the departure was to take place. According to the records of the SS in Minsk, we know that no fewer than 1,164 Volljuden (“full Jews”) were on the transport. They came from approximately forty localities in the Köln area, mainly Troisdorf, the Much collection point, the Enderich detention camp in Bonn, the collection point in Niederbardenberg, prisons in Siegburg and Rheinbach, and the sanatorium in Marsberg. There were 335 children in the transport, including 118 aged ten or below. Many of them had come from the Jewish orphanage on Apernstrasse in Köln, whose director had died shortly before the transport was due to leave.
Author Bruno Reifenrath counted twenty-eight Jews who had been transported on June 19, 1942, from the Much collection point at 8:00 a.m., via the Brandstrasse in Siegburg to the fairgrounds in Köln. Robert Heider, an eyewitness to the transports, told Reifenrath, “As I walked to early mass [on Sunday], three trucks were standing near the camp and the Jews were placed aboard them. It was impossible to know who was supervising the loading because you weren’t allowed to stop [there].”...