Following the Munich Conference and the annexation of the Sudetenland to the Reich in October 1938, Nazi anti-Jewish laws were implemented throughout the region. The Jewish population was persecuted and dispossessed of its property (Aryanized). These measures led many Jews to flee, mostly to neighboring Czechoslovakia.
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In November 1942, the RSHA initiated transports of the remaining Jews in the Sudetenland region. Gestapo headquarters in Liberec (Reichenberg), headed first by Rudolf Schröder and later by Bernhard Baatz, oversaw the deportations.

In January 1945, Nazi Germany faced military defeat. Allied forces liberated France, Belgium and most of the Netherlands. In Eastern Europe, the Red Army had advanced in to the Baltic States and Eastern Poland. On January 10, the Soviet forces launched a large scale offensive in East Prussia and Poland (Operation Vistula – Oder). Many German cities were heavily bombed and destroyed during the Allied aerial attack. The German transportation system was thrown into chaos.
However, the Gestapo continued to issue deportation announcements all across Germany.

The transport left Usti nad Labem to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 29 March 1945. This transport was listed as Ez, which were the German initials for special transport of individuals (Einzelreisende Sondertransport). It consisted of a single Jewish man, 82 year old Heinrich Reich. This was the last transport from the Usti nad Labem area, and one of the very last transports to reach Theresienstadt. Very little is known about this transport.

It is assumed that Heinrich Reich was driven in buses or trucks from the area of Usti nad Labem to Theresienstadt. In the Theresienstadt Ghetto listings the transport was recorded as XIX/12 Ez where the Roman numeral XIX refers to the area of Usti nad Labem.

The Theresienstadt ghetto was liberated a month later, on 8 May 1945. According to the Theresienstadt ghetto listings, Heinrich Reich was able to survive in the ghetto until the end of the war.
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