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 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 to be deported to Theresienstadt. This included Jews who had been awarded the iron cross during 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 Part Leader (“Gauleiter”) of Cologne 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 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 second transport to leave Cologne for Theresienstadt that year. It was named Da 76 by the Reichsbahn. The transport consisted of 1171 Jews, of whom 725 were women and 441 were men. The average age of the deportees was 63 and a half. The oldest deportees were in a group of six persons aged 90-98. The youngest deportees were three babies, aged six to eighteen months. They arrived from Luxemburg, Trier, Koblenz, Bonn and Cologne and several smaller towns in the area.

One of the deportees reported: "[...] On Sunday (9.7.1942) I got my order for evacuation. I have been expecting it for a long time. This last transport consisting of sick war invalids and elderly people will leave on the 27th of July 1945 to Theresienstadt. Then the Rhineland will be free of Jews."

A few days before she was deported from the assembly camp Much near Cologne to Theresienstadt Fanny Walter wrote to her children: "Beloved children! And so I also bid you farewell. Hopefully everything will be fine even though the journey will be very unpleasant. The hope that we will see you again keeps us going. As you can imagine, we are on edge. Aunt Bille is on our transport as well but it's not a given that we will meet her on the journey. As sad as it is, she is happy to see us, that is to be with us again. Uncle Simon also sends his sad regards. Dear children, we will be brave, and you must be as well. We hug and kiss you dearly. Stay healthy, and hopefully we will too. Hoping for a happy reunion. We have just received notification that we are leaving for Theresienstadt on Monday morning, the 27th.”

Fanny Walter stayed in Theresienstadt for only one month. In September 1942 she was deported to Treblinka and was murdered there.

Twenty six of the deportees were German Jews who had fled to Luxemburg and had to report to the assembly camp in the Fuenfbrunnen (Cinqfontaine) Monastery near Ufflingen (Troisvierges). The head of the Gestapo in Luxemburg Fritz Hartmann decided how many people were to be deported. The Jews chosen were informed by Alfred Oppenheimer , head of the Jewish Elders Council (“Aeltestenrat”) in Luxemburg. On July 26 1942, the deportees boarded a passenger car at the train station of Fuenfbrunnen which was attached to a regular passenger train travelling to Trier. Their luggage had already been transferred by Martin Meyer, the clerk in charge at the Aeltestenrat on July 25. The Gestapo official Otto Schmalz who was a member of the Sipo and SD in Luxemburg from 1940-1944 was responsible for the dispatch of the train in Luxemburg.

The 98 Jews from Trier had to be at the assembly camp Bischof-Korum-House on Rindertanzstrasse (today called Sichelstrasse) on July 26, at 12 o'clock the latest. The historian Edgar Christoffel gives an account of the deportation of the Meyer family from Zerf: "The gendarme Helke brought the family to Trier. He asked the conductor to give him a compartment for themselves so that he would be able to speak to the Meyer family in private. Mrs. Meyer and her son were crying and the two men were also very depressed. Markus Meyer said to the policeman: Please throw some stones over the wall of our cemetery from time to time to let our people know that someone still remembers them."

The special train with the Jews from Luxemburg and Trier consisted of regular passenger cars and left the Trier freight station on July 26 at 2.20 pm. Martin Meyer, a member of the Aeltestenrat in Luxemburg had asked the Luxemburg police to be allowed to help with the dispatch. From Trier the train went to Cologne. According to Inge Kahn, a car from Cochem was attached to the train in Koblenz. This may imply that the train went from Trier to Cologne via Koblenz.

The Jews from Cologne, Euskirchen, Bergheim, Siegburg, Gummersbach and Bergisch Gladbach were transported to the Western hall of the fairgrounds on July 27 between 8 and 11 am. They were transported to Cologne in trucks from Muengersdorf, Bergisch Gladbach and Eitorf and in open cattle cars from Gymnich and Friesheim. Jews from mixed marriages or those who had a foreign citizenship were not deported. However, Jews who were sick were brought to the convention hall under any circumstances.

Else Waldmann gives an account of her deportation: “The atmosphere before the last transport [from the assembly camp Bonn-Endenich] was horrible. The departure, not knowing where one was to be sent to, the packing of essential items. We were only allowed to take what we could carry. Everybody put on several suits of clothing and a winter coat on top. It was uncomfortably warm at the time. I also had a backpack, a bedroll, a quilt, a pillow and a bag with me.”

When they reached the convention hall 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 the order of their arrival. Almost all members of the Gestapo Cologne were present in the convention hall including some members of the police and the criminal investigation department, members of the Employment Office and the Office of Finance.. The officials from the Employment Office collected the deportees' work permits, disabled and tax cards.

At noon the head of the Jewish old-age home supplied the deportees with pea soup. Afterwards they walked to the underground railway station of Cologne-Deutz. Towards evening the special train - having arrived from Trier - left Cologne. According to the historian Paul Cerf the train departed at 9.33 pm.

From Cologne the train travelled to Chemnitz through Saxon, Switzerland. Hilde Nathan, born 1923 in Muenstereifel near Cologne remembers the journey in her memoirs: "From time to time the train stopped on the tracks. Then the soda water provided by the Jewish community was passed around. In the evening we arrived in Dredsen where we were shunted onto a side track. The next morning, the journey continued via Erzgebirge and Riesengebirge. I remember it was the land of Ruebezahl." The train arrived in Bauschowitz on July 28 1942. From there the deportees had to walk to Theresienstadt.

Hilde Nathan also describes their arrival in Theresienstadt: "When we had walked for 20 minutes on the road - we could already see the church spire of Theresienstadt - we were brought to a hill. In the middle of the hillside we could see a gap as tall as a man. The gap became narrower and then leveled off completely. We were led into this gap and went through a dark vault. The wide vault was only scarcely lit by a few bulbs hanging above some desks and the light coming in through the gap. We were told that we would be registered at the desks in the alphabetic order of our names. In the meantime we should sit on our luggage. Due to the number of people it would take a while before our turn.”


According to historians Alfred Gottwaldt and Diana Schulle 87 people from this transport survived.
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