During the autumn and winter months of 1942-1943 Nazi Germany suffered a series of major military setbacks signaling a shift in the course of the war: The defeat at El Alamein, followed by the landing of Allied forces in North- Africa (Operation Torch) and the encircling of the Sixth Army at Stalingrad.
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However, despite these setbacks the Nazis proceeded with their extermination policies. On February 7, 1943, several days after the German surrender at Stalingrad, Hitler addressed a group of Gauleiters (district party leaders) assembled at Rastenburg. During his speech, he repeated the threat to exterminate the Jews of Europe.
From summer 1942 onwards, the city of Hamburg became a target for large-scale bombing raids. During the night of July 26 - 27, just a few days after the first two transports to Theresienstadt had left, the first of these raids involving more than 400 aircraft severely damaged the city infrastructure. It was the first sign of what was to come. Several larger bombing raids followed during the autumn and winter of 1942 and the beginning of 1943.
The Jewish community of Hamburg had been one of the largest in Germany. When the Nazis took power, it numbered nearly 20,000 people. In 1941, on eve of the deportations, there were only 7,985 people left. Following just seven transports in 1941 and 1942, this number was further reduced to 1,792. In the autumn of 1942, the Jewish community lost all independence and the remaining structures were incorporated into the Reich Association of Jews in Germany (Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland).
From January 1943 onwards, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Theresienstadt were the main destination for the transports from the German Reich. The Gestapo picked up its efforts to seize and deport Jews, including Jews from mixed marriages that had ended due to divorce or the death of the non-Jewish spouse. The last deportation from Hamburg to Auschwitz left on February 12, 1943. After that, all transports from the city went to Theresienstadt. These deportations were smaller and usually consisted of 50-100 Jews.
On February 20, 1943, the Jewish department of the RSHA (Reich Security Main Office) issued new directives regarding the deportations of German Jews to the East. These new guidelines now permitted the deportation of Jews who had been employed in the war industry.
The eighth transport from Hamburg to Theresienstadt left the city on June 23, 1943. It consisted of 108 Jews. Some of these Jews had been residents of other cities (5 from Emden, 3 from Rostock, 2 from Walsrode, and 1 person from Jever, Oldenburg and from Stade) who were brought to Hamburg for their deportation. Several days prior to the transport, all the deportees were assembled in the buildings of the Jewish community in Beneckestrasse. Their luggage, which was limited to 50 kilograms, was searched at the assembly site. They were forced to provide an inventory of their property and to sign a document transferring all their remaining assets to the Reich.
This transport included the last 30 employees of the local offices of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden, which was dissolved in the same month. For the remainder, until the end of the war, the staff of the Jewish administration consisted of Jews who were still exempt from deportation due to their status as spouses in so called "Mischehen" (mixed marriages). Out of these, the Gestapo used Dr. Martin Heinrich Corten, the head of the Jewish hospital, as the so-called "trustee" (Vertrauensmann) whose task was to administrate the remaining Jewish population in Hamburg. Corten was sent to accompany transport VI/8 as a tending physician with the intention of returning him to his new post in Hamburg. However, he was held by the SS in Theresienstadt until the Hamburg Gestapo intervened and pressed for his release.
Among those listed for the transport was Leo Lippmann, council member and head of the financial office of the community administration. He had been an important member of his community and had repeatedly rejected offers for emigration. On June 10, 1943, Gestapo agents raided the community offices and informed him of his imminent deportation to Theresienstadt. The next night, Lippmann and his wife Anna Josephine committed suicide.
On the day of the transport, the Jews were moved to the Hannoversche Bahnhof (Hanover Station), an isolated cargo station located in the harbour area, which served as the embarkation point for all deportations leaving from Hamburg. They were forced to board one or two train cars, which were then attached to a regular train.
The train ride took two days. This was the second transport that was routed directly into the Ghetto as the prisoners had recently completed the construction of the new railway tracks that connected the Ghetto to Bohusovice station.
The transport arrived on June 25, 1943, and was listed as VI/8 in the Ghetto records. The Roman numeral VI represented Hamburg as the city of origin, the number 8 referred to the eighth transport from that city. 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. According to Historian Alfred Gottwald, just 11 of the deportees survived.
In her memoirs entitled "Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt", Kaethe Starke describes her experiences on Transport VI/8:
"I know from first-hand experience what animals are experiencing while rolling towards slaughter in a crammed cattle car. […] No - no one on our transport started to scream. And no one kicked us in the back, something which I did see 11 months earlier in the yard of the school at Sternschanze, when old people were not quick enough to climb the steep steps into the police vans.
"Mr." Goetsche, the head of Gestapo department for Jewish affairs at the Central Office of the Hamburg State Police gave us a farewell together with his staff. He was less industrious than usual. No filming, no cameras taking pictures of pretty female aides or people in misery on the platform, or the elderly dying on stretchers. In comparison, it was a quiet day. Just a small transport of 108 souls. But with this small transport, that included the last workers of the community and the last residents of the nursing and retirement homes, the officials of the Jewish department realized that their line of work in the homeland was ending, and the frontline was coming dangerously close.
[...] In contrast to standard practice, we were allowed to spend the last night in our own beds instead of being arrested and locked up several days ahead of time. [...] Noone was left to care for us, we had to organize our funeral on our own. From June 11, the whole complex in Beneckestrasse 2-6 was put under house arrest. The Jews of Hamburg, scattered all over the city, had been moved to these buildings from September 1942. [...] During registration for the transport list, an unusual conciliatory tone was adopted. No beatings, not even loud commands. No one had his head held under the water tap for amusement. We were handed our Jewish identity cards from the two young women that worked as Gestapo secretaries. A stamp had been added that stated "owner evacuated" and our names were ticked off on their list. Thus erased from the book of the living, we were, contrary to the usual custom, allowed to return to our rooms for the remaining time. We used this reprieve to write distress messages to friends in neutral countries, short notes that read: Today, I will be moving my place of residence to Theresienstadt, Protectorate.
Our adventure with no return began at the isolated cargo station, the embarkation point where so many Jewish transports were staged, a place that had seen eerie and heart-wrenching shadow plays and scenes full of inhumanity. It was one of the bright, sunny summer days that are so rare in our city. The red paint on the freight railcars that were about to swallow us reflected the sunlight. The line of workers carrying our bedridden patients, our elderly and people unfit for transport to the makeshift couchette cars were a merciless sight in the clear air. Cleaned up as if for a burial, carefully treated for the last time, they vanished behind the sliding doors, taken from helpless relatives who were still protected by their marriages to non-Jews. Their destiny was to starve to death.
[...] The Gestapo men said good-bye to their 2 colleagues who were to be our escort. Close to us but utterly alone stood Dr. Max Plaut, Max Plaut, the head of the community. For many tough years he had been facing both the constant hostility of the Gestapo and the anger of community members.
[...] Now he was losing his last and closest aides: Fanny David and Irma Zancker, Jeanette Baer and Thea Heymann, Erna Goldschmidt, Fritz Benscher and Sami Lazarus. While he talked to us to say goodbye and to convey his best wishes, his facial expression was indescribable.
[...] The doors were shut. The transport was ready for departure. We noticed that we had begun to move. This was the very moment when the traditional, time-honored Jewish communities in Altona and the high-valued and rich community of Hamburg ceased to exist.
I can't recall the first night, and neither do the other five survivors from our railcar who I was able to ask. I suppose we fell asleep out of exhaustion. At some point, the sun was already shining again; black bread was handed out and distributed among us. The doors remained narrowly ajar and warm summer air flowed in during the ride. The train stopped frequently and for long periods of time. Finally we reached Dresden. As nobody seemed to object, we dared to jump out onto the gravel and began to stretch carefully. People from other railway cars also got some fresh air.
[...] On the evening of June 24, 1943, our Gestapo guards grew tired of us and of their own kindness. They closed the doors, locked them tightly and would not open them again until the end of our trip. They did not know that they would have to endure a bombing raid at night together with us at the switchyard, even though it would be mild compared to those that occurred later. [...] From the outside nobody would have guessed that the small cargo train sitting on the tracks, surrounded by impact blasts and the explosive noise of anti-aircraft guns was filled with anxious life.
[...] The train had started to move again hours ago. [...] The heat in our wagon became more oppressive while the day advanced. Exhausted and apathetic we all sat on our spots. The train had stopped for some time, probably to change the engine, and now moved on slowly. Then something frightening happened. We heard hissing voices: Do you have some tobacco? Throw it out! You won't be allowed to keep cigarettes. [...] Shortly after, the train came to a halt. [...] We had arrived. We were in Theresienstadt."
Transport VI/8 was the last deportation that left Hamburg in 1943. One month after the transport left, the city of Hamburg was targeted by a series of massive bombing raids which became known as "Operation Gomorrha". In just ten days large areas of the city were practically destroyed. A large part of the surviving population, including many Jews, fled to the countryside. As a result, the Gestapo was unable to conduct any more deportations until the year was out.
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