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 AK/B left Ceske Budejovice (Budweis) for Theresienstadt on April 18, 1942. It consisted of 909 Jews. According to existing deportation lists the deportees were residents from Ceske Budejovice, and also jews from neighboring towns and villages as: Vodnany, Hluboka nad Vltavou, Bavarovice, Suchdol nad Luznici, Tyn nad Vltavou, Bavorov und Trebon.

The deportees were assembled in a metal factory near the train station. Prior to the train’s departure, several staff members of the Prague Jewish community Transports Department arrived in Ceske Budejovice 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, and issued notices regarding the date of deportation.

The Jews were transferred to the train station and put on a train. After it arrived in Bohusovice, the deportees had to disembark and were forced to march the remaining 3 km to Theresienstadt.


In her post war memoirs, Frantistka Nassauova recollects:

Following German orders we assembled in a metal factory near the train station […], which served as a detention camp for four days before they sent us to Theresienstadt […] we lay on the floor, on our luggage. They counted us many times, also before boarding the train, to prevent escaping. The assembly site was very close to the train station, I remember walking to the platform, where a train awaited us…
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