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, 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, 1942, 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 belonging to this category would be deported to Theresienstadt. Eichmann also warned the Gestapo not to notify the Jews in advance of 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 a top priority. Jews of foreign nationality or those enrolled in the war industry were exempt from deportation.

On July 14, 1942 Municipal Director of the nearby city of Riesa, Botho Furch, wrote a letter to the Mayor of Leipzig, Alfred Freyberg in which he pointed out that Dresden was deporting its Jews. In addition he mentioned that he had already contacted the local Gestapo in order to facilitate a swift deportation of the Leipzig Jews who, after two big deportations to destinations in Eastern Europe, would now be transported to Theresienstadt which, according to Furch, would absorb the remaining Jews of Germany and would be called “Judenstadt” (Jews’ Town). Others who assisted in organizing this transport included the Head of the Gestapo in Leipzig, Ernst Kausmann, as well as Stadtamtmann (City Councellor) Kurt Voigt and his co-worker Felix Gerbhardt, both of whom had senior responsibilities in Leipzig’s Department of Jewish Affairs.

The general guidelines recommended that Gestapo units force the Reich Association of Jews in Germany and local Jewish leaders to assist in preparing the transports. Dr. Fritz Grunsfeld, the administrative director of the city’s Jewish community, was responsible for this task in Leipzig. He was ordered to provide lists of local Jews according to criteria (such as age groups) all specified by the local Gestapo.

As soon as the lists were obtained by the Gestapo in Leipzig, copies were passed on to their local Department for Jewish Affairs, known in German as Judenstelle. Those Jews selected for deportation were notified in writing. The deportees were permitted to bring a sum of 50 Reichmarks, a suitcase, a full set of clothes, suitable shoes, bedding, tableware and food supplies for eight days. Additionally, those selected for deportation had to produce an inventory of all their properties. If one or more of the proposed deportees committed suicide, or for any other reason could not be deported at the last minute, the Judenstelle would ensure that others would be deported in their place. The deportees were normally kept in the assembly camps for two days prior to deportation.

This transport departed from Leipzig on September 19, 1942 and arrived in Theresienstadt the following day. The train was designated “DA 517”. It was the first of 19 transports from Leipzig to Theresienstadt during the war, which were made up mainly of elderly Jewish deportees (Alterstransporte), and also the largest. There were between 877 and 880 people on this transport. Overall 19 transports travelled from Leipzig to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, including 12 Einzeltransporte (transports of individuals). With the exception of the Einzeltransporte, the transports that were recorded in Theresienstadt as having arrived from Leipzig did not originate in Leipzig. Rather, these trains came from places like Weimar and even as far as Frankfurt (am Main) and stopped in Leipzig en route to Theresienstadt to pick up the Jews from Leipzig and the vicinity.

This train began its journey in Weimar (Thuringia) on September 19, 1942. In Weimar, the elderly Jews, who had been forced to live in "Judenhäusern" (houses designated for Jews), were taken to the train at the freight train station in Ettersburger Straße from the assembly site at Marstall. Among them were 60 elderly Jews who had been brought from Eisenach, as well as 13 Jews from Gera, one Jewish woman from Weida and an uncertain number of Jews from Nordhausen in Thuringia. Fifteen elderly people from Mühlhausen in Thuringia were also part of this transport. On September 19, 1942 they were brought from the assembly site at Bastmarkt on foot to the freight train station, from where they were presumably brought to Weimar. The oldest member of this group was 84 years old, the youngest 56.
On September 4, 1942, a further deportation order was issued for nine Jews from the Thuringian city of Jena, which notified them of their upcoming deportation on September 19. One of the deportees, 80 year old Therese Zuckerkandl, committed suicide following receipt of this deportation order, the other eight were on this transport. It is unclear whether they joined the train in Leipzig or in Weimar.

In Leipzig 440 Jews joined the train. Prior to the deportation, the deportees in Leipzig were ordered to appear at the assembly site or were taken from their homes by the Gestapo. A couple of Gestapo men, members of the Jewish Desk, would usually show up in order to round up the Jews destined for deportation. The Jews were required to hand over their apartments after they had paid all outstanding taxes. The Gestapo men searched the deportees’ luggage and the apartment, and confiscated valuables. Subsequently they sealed the apartments. This process usually took place one to two days prior to the actual deportation. At the assembly site the Jews were forced to sign a declaration authorizing the transfer of their property to the state.

Among the deportees were 99 inhabitants of the Jewish old age home in Leipzig, as well as at least 14 members of the Leipzig Jewish community administration. According to historian Ellen Bertram, they were taken to the freight train station at Engelsdorf (presumably by streetcar) from the 32. Volksschule (elementary school) in Yorckstrasse, which at the time served as the assembly site for Jews being deported from Leipzig. Of these a minimum of 336 were from Leipzig. There were also 68 members of the Jewish old age home in nearby Halle (Saxony) who had been brought directly to the train station by bus, smaller groups of Jews from Gera, Jena, Altenburg and Nordhausen, as well as single persons from various towns in the vicintiy such as Bleicherode, Erfurt, Meiningen and Sangershausen. It is not known how and when exactly the Jews from these surrounding towns were brought to Leipzig, though it can be assumed that they arrived in Leipzig no more than two days before the transport left Leipzig, as the assembly camps in Leipzig were made available to hold Jews for only two days.

The train's route took the deportees from Weimar to Leipzig and then to Dresden along the river Elbe to Decin (Tetschen), Usti nad Labem (Aussig) and finally to Bohusovice (Bauschowitz). 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 km to Theresienstadt, carrying their backpacks.

Fritzi Moldovan from Leipzig was on that transport. In her postwar testimony she testifies that upon their arrival in Bohusovice they saw Jews from Theresienstadt with bands on their arms working at the train station. According to her statement, the walk from Bohusovice to Theresienstadt took between one and half to two hours, as people had many things to carry and wore as many clothes as they could since they had no idea when or if they would return to their homes. Only people who were unable to walk were taken in trucks.

The transport was given the reference XVI/1 in the Theresienstadt ghetto listings where the Roman numeral XVI refers to Leipzig. In Theresienstadt many of the elderly Jewish deportees who had arrived on these transports died of hunger and disease during the following months. Others were later transferred to extermination camps in the East where they were murdered.

According to historian Alfred Gottwald, at least three persons from this transport were transported from Theresienstadt to Treblinka in October 1942, 52 were transported to Auschwitz in early 1943, with 105 following during 1944. Ninety two persons of the 877 deported on this transport survived.

Of the 1,216 Jews who arrived in Theresienstadt from Leipzig, around half actually came from that city; the others boarded the same trains which stopped in Leipzig en route to Theresienstadt, or they were taken to the assembly camp in Leipzig from the surrounding areas.
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