At the end of November 1941 the former fortress Theresienstadt, located 60 km north of Prague was turned into a ghetto. At first, Jews of all ages from Bohemia and Moravia (the "Protectorate") were deported to this camp.
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At the Wannsee conference on January 20 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, Head of the Reich Security Main Office, announced that from June 1942 on elderly Jews from the the German territories at the pre-1938 borders (“Altreich”) would be deported to Theresienstadt. These would include war invalids and decorated veterans of the First World War. At a conference in Berlin on March 6 1942 at which preparations for the deportations were made, Adolf Eichmann, Head of the Department for Jewish Affairs and Evacuation (Department IVB4) in the Reich Security Main Office, also designated Theresienstadt as the destination for these deportations.

On May 15 1942, the first guidelines concerning the evacuation of Jews to Theresienstadt, signed by the head of the Gestapo Heinrich Mueller, were published. It confirmed that Jews over the age of 65, infirm Jews over the age of 55, their Jewish spouses and their children under the age of 14 were to be deported to Theresienstadt. This included Jews who had been awarded the Iron Cross in the First World War and Jews formerly married to non-Jewish partners.

From February 1942 Cologne was severely bombarded by the Royal Air Force. The Party Leader (“Gauleiter”) of Cologne-Aachen, Josef Grohe, used the housing shortage caused by the so-called "1,000 bomber" attack of May 30, 1942 as an argument to launch further deportations. These followed deportations that had been conducted from the city in October 1941 to Lodz and in December 1941 to Riga. Grohe explicitly asked the Reich Main Security Office to give precedence to deportations from Cologne, should any new deportations take place. The Swiss Consul Franz Rudolf von Weiss was convinced by the Gauleiter's argument and on June 15 1942, he wrote to the Swiss government: "In order to obtain more apartments, deportations of Jews to the East have started again".

In June and July 1942 two especially reserved trains went to Theresienstadt. This was the first transport to leave Cologne for Theresienstadt that year. It departed from the underground railway station Cologne-Deutz on June 15 and arrived in Theresienstadt on June 16 1942. The transport consisted of 964 Jews, of whom 616 were women and 348 were men. The average age of the deportees was 69 and a half. The youngest was 4 years old and the oldest was an 89-year-old woman; 825 of them were between the ages of 61 and 90. They travelled via Chemnitz and Dresden to Bauschowitz. From there the deportees had to walk to the ghetto.

On June 13 1942, the Cologne Gestapo official Franz Sprinz informed the heads of the district authorities in Koeln, Bergisch Gladbach, Euskirchen, Bergheim, Siegburg and Gummersbach to supply Jews for evacuation. Further deportees came from the assembly camp in the Convent of Perpetual Adoration in Bonn-Endenich and from the assembly camp in Much near Cologne. Sprinz gave the order to bring the deportees to the fairgrounds in Cologne on June 14 by 2 pm. The deportees were transported to Cologne on trucks and buses and by train.

A contemporary witness gave an account of Berta Stock’s deportation from Stommeln. He notes that "one day, a truck arrived. A lot of Jews were already standing on the truck's platform, crowded together, guarded by Gesatpo officers. Berta Stock was brought out of the house and was forced to climb across the open tailgate of the truck". In October 1944 Berta Stock was deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz where she was murdered.

In the convention hall at the fairgrounds the deportees' valuables were confiscated, they were searched and forced to sign a declaration authorizing the transfer of their assets to the German Reich.

They received consecutive deportee numbers based on their order of arrival. Almost all members of the Gestapo Cologne were present at the fairgrounds including some members of the uniformed and criminal police, members of the Employment Office and the Office of the Regional Minister of Finance. The officials from the employment office collected the deportees' work permits, disabled and tax cards.

The deportees had to spend the night between June 14 and 15 in one of the convention centers, the floor of which had been covered with dirty straw. Dora Philippson who was deported to Theresienstadt with her father Alfred and her stepmother Margarethe described the convention center in an undated testimony: "The conditions in the center were horrible, the state of the toilets absolutely indescribable as if they had been blocked for weeks but had continually been used. Sitting accommodations for a stay of more than 24 hours did not exist, just a few benches without backrests. There were only some blankets lying around that were not supposed to be taken away, but they did give us a place to sit on during the night.

On June 15 1942, the day of deportation, the Jews had to walk from the convention center to the underground railway station of Cologne-Deutz. There they had to board the train to Theresienstadt. Three survivors, Klara Caro, Dora Philippson and Frieda Muhr, reported that the carriages were actually cattle cars.

Upon arrival in Theresienstadt, the transport was given the reference number III/1 where the Roman numeral III indicated the city of Cologne.

963 people were deported to Theresienstadt on this transport. 37 of them survived.

Klara Caro, wife of Cologne's Rabbi Isidor Caro, also described the deportation in her memoirs dating from 1961: "On the following Sunday at nine o'clock in the morning we received the summons to join the transport. We had 3 hours to pack the 50 pounds of luggage which we were allowed to take. Our groceries had been burnt anyway and kind people who were not yet been called for deportation brought us some bread. I will never forget the joy the people felt when it became apparent in the convention hall, the assembly point for the transports, that the rabbi and myself, his wife, would be joining the fate of the thousands who were deported to Theresienstadt."

Dora Philippson gives an account of the journey to Bauschowitz in her memoirs: "Late in the evening, under escort of the police, the march to the train station at Deutz began. In Deutz we were put into cattle cars. We were especially miserable as we were part of the larger group of 49 people who had to board the smallest waggon, a so-called French waggon. The Gentlemen who conducted the transport were of course travelling in the first class coach. At least, in the cattle car we found quite a good spot to sit in as I was one of the first to board. The luggage of each group had already been loaded into the car. In the front part (driving direction) all the soft luggage had been put, opposite the suitcases of the 49 people. We sat on the soft luggage. Sitting there we were sheltered from turbulences, had something soft beneath us and were only hit by soft items on our heads when the train suddenly stopped. It was horribly cramped, everyone crouched as best he could.

Of course there was neither seating accommodation nor straw in the wagon, only dirt and a big acid bottle in a basket. In the beginning it was watched with suspicion but it turned out to be harmless. Two old siblings used the bottle as a seat and got up each time they felt they were turning lame. At about seven or half past seven in the evening on June 15, the train started moving. We traveled for 24 hours, at times moving quickly, at other times moving slowly. Through cracks in the doors, people who were well-positioned were able to read us the names of stations that we hurriedly passed by. Finally we passed through Leipzig. Between Leipzig and Dresden we stopped for some time at a loading station to pick up some troops. For the first time we saw some of those who accompanied the train. We were given bread brought from Cologne. Those who were quick enough could leave the wagon and relieve themselves in the field until they were angrily interrupted by the police and the runaways were brought back into the car, pushed in by the police and pulled in by the deportees. After the stop in Leipzig we were pretty sure about our destination. In Bodenbach we could see something of the hilly landscape. About seven pm we finally arrived in Bauschowitz.”

One of the deportees was Alfred Philippson (1863-1953) who came from a family of rabbis in Bonn. He studied geography and taught at the universities of Bern, Halle (Saale) and Bonn. In 1933 his academic freedom was was severely constrained. Although the Swedish geographer Sven Heddin himself asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs not to deport Philippson, the Professor was deported to Theresienstadt. In the ghetto he was imprisoned as a so-called celebrity and wrote his autobiography, "How I Became a Geographer". He did not mention a word about his imprisonment in Theresienstadt. After being liberated he continued to work as a Professor at the University of Bonn.

Dora Philippson (1896-1980) studied mathematics and sciences. From 1921 until 1933 she taught mathematics, physics and chemistry in Berlin and Kassel. After she was forced to stop teaching she returned to her parents in Bonn. Originally she was supposed to be deported to Sobibor but was able to get on the same transport as her father and her stepmother. After being liberated she worked as her father's secretary. She was not able to teach again as her health was ruined as a result of her years in the ghetto.
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