Towards the end of November 1941, the Nazi authorities began to deport the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia (the Protectorate) to the fortress city of Theresienstadt, which was located about 60 km north of Prague. The city’s 18th century fortress now served as a ghetto. Thousands of deportees were housed in the army barracks under terrible conditions. By depicting Theresienstadt as a "model of Jewish settlement" and thus concealing its role as a transit camp for Jewish deportees, the Nazis were able to camouflage their true objectives and policies namely, the mass annihilation of the Jews.
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Commencing in January 1942, transports began to leave Theresienstadt for Riga. Later, some of the transports were sent to extermination camps and murder sites, including Auschwitz, Treblinka and Maly Trostenets.

At the Wannsee Conference on January 20 1942, Head of the RSHA (Reich Security Main Office) Reinhard Heydrich announced that Hitler had authorized the evacuation of the Jewish population in Europe to the East. Heydrich added that the evacuation of the Reich’s Jews would be given priority because of housing problems and other socio-political considerations. Jews over the age of 65, war invalids, or Jews decorated with the Iron Cross would be sent to the newly established “old people’s ghetto” – Theresienstadt.

On March 6, following Heydrich’s announcement, Adolf Eichmann, Director of the Department of Jewish and Dispossession Affairs (Department IVB4) in the RSHA, convened a meeting of Gestapo delegates from all over the Reich to discuss the measures necessary to carry out the deportation of 55,000 Jews from Germany and the Protectorate. Eichmann stressed that elderly Jews were not to be included in the transports. Jews who belonged to this category would be deported to Theresienstadt. Eichmann also warned the Gestapo not to notify the Jews in advance about their deportation in order to prevent attempts to elude the transport.

On May 15 1942, Department IVB4 issued new guidelines signed by Gestapo Head Heinrich Müller regarding the deportation of Jews to the “old people’s” ghetto in Theresienstadt. The evacuation of the residents from old age homes was cited as the top priority. Jews of foreign nationality or those enrolled in the war industry were exempt from deportation.

The deportation of the elderly Jews of Breslau to transit camps in the rural areas of Lower Silesia had already begun in July 1941, instigated by an edict from the Head of the regional NSDP branch (“Gauleiter”) Karl Hanke. In the autumn of 1941, Alfred Hampel, head of the Department of Jewish Affairs in the Breslau State Police Office, traveled to Berlin where he received guidelines and documents concerning the deportation of Jews to the East.

Transport IX/2 departed from the Odertor train station during the night of the 30th or in the early morning of the 31st August 1942, and arrived at Theresienstadt on the 31st of August. It was the second of 12 transports consisting of elderly and otherwise privileged Jews from the province of Lower Silesia. The transport held 1065 Jews, all of whom were residents of the Breslau and Liegnitz districts. The transport included most of the elderly Jews who had been previously deported to the transit camps at Riebnig (Rybna), Tormersdorf (Zoar), and Grüssau (Krzeszów). For this transport, the Gestapo ordered a special train from the Reichsbahn which was given the reference DA 508.

Prior to the assembly of the transport, the Head of the Department of Jewish Affairs sent notifications to the State Police Branches (“Aussendienststellen”) of other cities in the province asking for certain individuals to be brought to the assembly sites in Breslau. The residents of Breslau who were on this transport were arrested and registered at their homes by uniformed police and NSDAP activists, and were then brought by trucks to the assembly sites. If they were not found, a manhunt would be initiated.

The deportees were housed at two assembly sites: one was the unused concert hall in Schiesswerderplatz and the other was the hall of the Society of Friends at Neue Graupenstrasse. They remained there for several days, guarded by uniformed police. The deportees were questioned by officers from the Department of Jewish Affairs, representatives of the Regional Financial Office of Lower Silesia, legal clerks and officials from the District Government. They were forced to sign a declaration relinquishing their entire property to the State. They had to hand over the keys of their apartments to the clerks of the Regional Financial Office. Officers of the Criminal Police and the Gestapo conducted body searches and examined luggage for money and valuables which were confiscated upon discovery. Sometimes the deportees would undergo mock physical examinations by the Gestapo officers. Afterwards, Gestapo officials escorted by Jewish marshals or NSDAP activists would conduct another search in the apartments of the deportees and then seal them off.

During their internment at the assembly sites, the deportees were provided for by representatives from the Ministry of Nutrition, as well as by a Jewish physician and a small medical staff. The latter were brought to the assembly site by trucks, and were not allowed to leave until the transport had departed. During the long wait, some of the deportees committed suicide. In such cases the Gestapo simply arrested others to take their place.

On the day of the transport, the deportees were marched to the Odertor station and the police closed off the streets through which they passed. The luggage and those unable to march were brought by trucks operated by a local moving business. At the train station they were hurried into the cars, sometimes in a brutal and violent manner. The exact time of the departure is unknown. The journey took 12 hours at the very least, and possibly longer. The train presumably went west, to Dresden and from there to Bohusovice (Bauschowitz) via Decin (Tetschen) and Usti nad Labem (Aussig).

The deportees were taken off the train at Bohusovice station and forced by the awaiting SS personnel and Czech gendarmerie to walk the approximate 3 kilometers to Theresienstadt, carrying their hand luggage. Only people who were unable to walk were taken in trucks. The transport was given the reference IX/2 in the Theresienstadt ghetto listings where the Roman numeral IX refers to Breslau. In Theresienstadt, many of the elderly Jewish deportees died of hunger and disease. Others were later transferred to extermination camps in the East where they were murdered.

30 persons from this transport are known to have survived the war.


Siegmund Hadda, director of the Jewish Hospital in Breslau, wrote in his memoirs: “In the garden of the club house [of the Society of Friends], three Gestapo officials determined which of the deportees was capable of being transported; they had them walk quickly here and there, turn around suddenly, and then keep walking. As an observer, I had to take part in this shameful act, but I was not asked [for my opinion] even once. Most of the transports went to the East, the elderly went to Theresienstadt.”


In her memoirs, survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch recalled the deportation of her 82 year-old grandmother, Flora Lasker:

“Next on the list for deportation was my grandmother, and I remember getting her ready and hanging a bag around her neck with all the various medications in it that she was supposed to take. She did not really understand what was happening to her – thank God – and she retained her pride and dignity to the end. I took her to the assembly point (this time it was a school yard), and stood by her side until her name was called for registration… a Getsapo man sat at a table reading out names, and the people who were called had to walk past the table to the other side of the yard. When he called ‘Lasker’, my grandmother walked past the table, but not without stopping in front of the Gestapo man. She looked him straight in the face, and said very loudly: ‘Frau Lasker to you’. I thought he would hit her there and then, but not a bit of it. He just said simply: ‘Frau Lasker’.”
Flora Lasker perished in Theresienstadt several days later, on 9.9.1942.
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