In 1944 the Gestapo launched six "small" transports from Munich, consisting of 44 Jews altogether.
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Since the closure of the Milbertshofen assembly camp in August 1942, the number of Jews in Munich remained very low. In March 1943 the Berg am Laim camp was also closed. On September 1, 1944 only 450 persons were counted as Jews according to the Nuremberg laws. Among them seven were “full Jews”. The majority of people in the last eleven transports from Munich to Theresienstadt were Jews from ‘mixed marriages’ who were scheduled for deportation because their non-Jewish partner had either died or divorced. In February 1943 the RSHA had sent out new deportation guidelines to the local State Police offices. From then on, working in forced labour did not protect anyone from deportation. However, Jewish partners in existing mixed marriages and “Geltungsjuden” (people of mixed ancestry) were still exempt. In May 1943 the guidelines for deportation intensified as Heinrich Himmler ordered that all Jews defined as such according to the Nuremberg laws and still living in Germany had to be deported.
This transport with one person aboard arrived in Theresienstadt on December 23 1944. The deportee was Rosa Kaupp (b. 27 September 1877). This transport is one of a few transports in 1944 about which there is almost no information available besides the names and addresses of the deportees.
There was no assembly camp anymore, and therefore she was taken from her residence and brought to the police station where she was jailed for a few days prior to deportation. Her luggage was searched and her last valuables were confiscated. She had to endure bureaucratic procedures and undergo the final stages of expropriation. Her declaration of property was collected and she was informed that because she was “an enemy of the Reich” her assets had been seized.
Guarded and accompanied by a Gestapo man or a policeman, she was taken to Theresienstadt. If she travelled by train, the route would have taken her from Munich’s central train station to Moosach, Freising, Landshut, Regensburg, Schwandorf, Marktredwitz, Eger, Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad) and Usti nad Labem (Aussig) and finally to Theresienstadt.
The transport was given the reference II/32 Ez 4 where the Roman numeral II refers to Munich. Ez were the German initials given to special transports of individuals (Einzelreisende Sondertransport).
Rosa Kaupp survived Theresienstadt.
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