During the spring-summer months of 1943, Nazi Germany suffered a series of defeats in several theaters of war: in May, German forces in North Africa surrendered. In July, Following the failure of "Operation Citadel" (Battle of Kursk), the Soviet counteroffensive on the Eastern Front began. Almost, simultaneously, an allied force landed in Sicily and Benito Mussolini, the leader of fascist Italy, Germany’s ally, was dismissed. Over the course of the summer, the Allied aerial attack on the German home front and industrial centers intensified. Despite these events, German authorities continued to deport the Jews, who still resided in the Reich, to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz Birkenau.
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On May 21 1943, Rolf Günther, Adolf Eichmann’s deputy in Department IVB4, informed all local police headquarters that Heinrich Himmler had ordered to complete all deportations of Jews from the Greater Reich and the Protectorate to the East (Auschwitz-Birkenau) and to Theresienstadt by June 30, 1943. The new regulations permitted the deportation of ill and handicapped Jews, as well Jews who were still employed by the war industry, and employees of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden (Reich's Association of the Jews in Germany) and of its representatives in various communities. Jews married to non-Jews were exempt from deportation.
The transport left Waidhofen An Der Ybbs, (Lower Austria ) on September 9, 1943, and arrived in Theresienstadt on September 10. It consisted of 10 Jews. Apparently they were driven to Vienna’s Nordbahnhof (Northern Railway Station).
Like in other small transports, they were put on passenger train No. 723 that left daily at 6 PM from the Nordbahnhof traveled via Breclav (Lundenburg) to Brno (Brünn). In Brno they were transferred to a train run by the "Protektoratsbahnen" (the company that operated trains in the so called "Protektorat"). They continued their journey to Prague (Praha) and from there to Theresienstadt.
Upon arrival, the transport was listed in the ghetto records as IV/14m. The Roman numeral IV represented Vienna as city of origin.
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