Following the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in March 1939, and the declaration of a Slovak republic on March 14, Hitler announced on March 15 the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Between 1939 and 1941 the Nazi authorities in the Protectorate carried out various anti-Jewish measures, which included the harassment of Jews and of Jewish institutions and the confiscation of property.
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On October 10, 1941, the newly appointed Reichsprotektor, Reinhard Heydrich, summoned several SS officers, among them Adolf Eichmann, to a meeting in Prague (Praha). Heydrich, who was also chief of the Reich Main Security Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt - RSHA), revealed a plan to deport 5,000 Jews from the Protectorate to Eastern Europe and in addition to expel the remaining Jews of the Protectorate to an assembly camp in Bohemia. Theresienstadt, a garrison town built in the 18th century, located about 6 kilometers north of Prague, was chosen to serve as the place for concentrating the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia.
Mass deportations of Jews from Prague and soon afterwards from other large cities began in late November 1941.
In the provincial areas the registration of Jews began in January 1942.

On February 19, 1942, a month after the Wannsee conference, Adolf Eichmann summoned representatives of the Jewish religious congregation of Prague (along with those of Vienna and Berlin) to brief them on the forthcoming mass deportations from the “Greater Reich” to the East or to Theresienstadt.

Before the deportations of the Jews from the provinces began on March 27 1942, all Jewish religious congregations in the provinces were dissolved.

Transport AAg left Olomouc (Olmütz) for the Theresienstadt Ghetto on June 30, 1942. It consisted of 900 Jews. According to archival records most of them were residents of neighboring towns and villages, including Tovacov (Tobitschau), Hranice (Weißkirchen), Kojetin, Lipnik (Leipnik), Lostice and Prerov (Prerau). The deportees were assembled at a school building in Hodolany, a neighborhood near the local train station.

Prior to the train’s departure, several staff members of the Jewish community’s Transports Department in Prague came to Olomouc to carry out the administrative measures ordered by the Central Office for Jewish Immigration. They prepared a list of deportees, registered Jewish property, issued notices regarding the date of deportation, and assisted in packing and carrying luggage.

The Jews were transferred from the school building to the train station and put on a train. After their arrival in Bohusovice, the deportees had to disembark and were forced to march the remaining 3 km to Theresienstadt.


In his memoirs, Heinz J. Hermann recalls:

“Despite the fact that everyone had expected it, the final call for deportation still came as a surprise. Some had really held on to the hope that a miracle would happen and that they would not be selected for deportation. Two days before the transport left- in the second half of July 1942 - we were notified that we had been assigned to transport AAG and that by dawn we would have to be ready with one suitcase and one backpack per person. Naturally, depression, panic and fear befell us - fear of what was going to happen to us. We young people were able to keep our hopes up and remain calm but, the older the people were, the less they could cope with the fact that their whole life achievements were coming to nought. My grandfather who was 87 and my grandmother who was 81 years old were both of sound mind, and yet were beset by a frightening kind of apathy, as if they knew that their days were numbered.

On the day of departure a long, slow moving convoy moved along the Bahnhofstrasse to the station. The ones who remained behind helped the elderly with their luggage; each had a transport number written on a piece of cardboard around his neck. Mine was AAG-308. Heartbreaking scenes took place as we boarded the train carriages: Families were torn apart, many non-Jews came to say goodbye to their long-time friends, many tears were shed.

And then the journey began, first to an assembly camp in Olmütz which was located in a large, vacated school, and which was under SS-guard and SS-management. There, we got a taste of the treatment we could expect in the months and years to follow. We were held in empty classrooms, here and there was a single sack of hay, but most people had to look for a place to sleep on the bare floor. Again this was something that was not hard for us young ones, but for the elderly it was physically very difficult. In the basement of the school there was an interrogation room used by the Gestapo, and the poor victims who were called for questioning for whatever reason returned badly bruised and covered in blood. Seeing them, naturally caused great anxiety and we would not be able to rid ourselves of that feeling for years to come.”
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