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 Ai left Brno for the Theresienstadt Ghetto on April 8, 1942. It consisted of 923 Jews who were residents of Brno and other towns in the vicinity, two of which were Ivancice (Eibenschütz) and Bucovice (Butschowitz). Some of the deportees, mainly sick and elderly Jews who resided outside Brno were transferred by buses to a collection point in a school building on Merhautova St. 37.

Prior to the train’s departure, several staff members of the Prague Jewish community Transports Department arrived in Brno to carry out administrative measures according to the orders they received from 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 deportees were transferred by tram to the train station and put on a passenger train. After arrival in Bohusovice, the Jews were taken off and were forced to march the remaining 3 km to Theresienstadt.

According to historian Anita Frankova, some of the deportees were sent from Theresienstadt to Rejowiec in eastern Poland on April 18.


Excerpts from Robert Theumann’s testimony about his family’s arrival in Theresienstadt on Transport Ai:

"Three days before the transport we were transferred to the Mendel School. Up to 1,000 people were held under inhuman conditions. We had to hand over our identification certificates and sign a document declaring that we volunteered for resettlement. We were already completely isolated at that school. The Czech population, which was usually willing to help, was not able to make any contact. Late in the evening, an escort of SS men transferred us by tram to the central train station. On the tram we were ordered to sit down so that pedestrians could not see us. We left the train station after midnight. We traveled on board a passenger train for about 24 hours until we reached the station at Bohusovice. From there, carrying our hand luggage and escorted by SS, we marched over an hour until we reached the gate of the ghetto. "


Silvester Novacek, described the day of deportation from Ivancice:

"It was the first day of Easter, a group of Jews marched quietly in the middle of Kremlovska Street towards the train station. They carried their suitcases and parcels. This is how the last Jews left Ivancice. They marched towards their certain death. Ida Pretznerova, who was 60 years old, marched in the first row, her two sons Jan and Karel beside her. She was followed by 70–year-old Salomon whom Ida would refer to as Shlojme. People stood silently on the sidewalk watching the exodus of the last Jewish residents of Ivancice. Suddenly one of them shouted: “Where are you going?’ this was one with a crude sense of humor, familiar in Ivancice. However the others silenced him immediately and shouted at him to shut up. Ida Pretznerova, who was also born in Ivancice turned to him and told him bluntly: “Where ever we’re going, you’ll soon follow us”. She couldn’t say any more, because Karel forbade her to. He put his arm on her shoulder and whispered something in her ear."
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