Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and a sense of euphoria gripped the Nazi regime as a result of its military achievements on the Eastern front. In September 1941 Adolf Hitler approved plans proposed by various members of the Nazi hierarchy that called for mass deportation of Jews from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Luxembourg. The deportations commenced in October 1941 while Germany was in the process of attacking Moscow and in wake of its victories in the battles of Vyazma and Bryansk.
Show more On October 10, before the first deportation left Germany, Reinhard Heydrich, who headed the RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt - Reich Security Main Office), had a meeting in Prague with Adolf Eichmann, head of the Jewish Desk in the RSHA and other SS officers. Heydrich reported that 50,000 Jews from the areas of the Third Reich and the Protectorate would be deported to recently occupied locations in the USSR, including Riga and Minsk.

The first wave of deportations took place between October 15 and November 5, and consisted of 20 transports taking 19,593 Jews from Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Moravia to Lodz. During the deportations to Lodz, preparations were made to deport 50,000 Jews to other destinations within the Reichskommissariat Ostland, including Riga, Minsk and Kaunas (Kovno). On November 8, the second wave of deportations began and continued until early February 1942. This time, 22 transports left the Third Reich for the Reichskommissariat; seven to Minsk, five to Kaunas and ten to Riga. Approximately 22,000 Jews were deported altogether.
The Jewish deportees from the Third Reich to Riga arrived at the Skirotava station on the outskirts of the city. They were informed when they alighted that their baggage and personal effects would be transferred to the local ghetto. But the deportees did not all make it to the ghetto in Riga; certainly their baggage was never transferred to the ghetto. Some of the deportees were sent directly from the station to the Rumbula Forest, where they were murdered. The arrival of Jewish deportees from the Third Reich coincided with the roundup and murder of local Jews in the Riga ghetto.
Some of the deportees were transferred to Jungfernhof, a farm located 1.5 km from the train station in Skirotava, where they were housed in extremely crowded conditions - some in granaries, others in stables - and forced, hungry and cold, sick and abused, into hard labor.
Able-bodied men aged 16 to 50 arriving at Riga on the first deportations in December, 1941 were sent to build the Salaspils camp, which was located about 18 km outside Riga. Some of the subsequent deportees to Riga were sent to the large ghetto called “the German ghetto” while the local Riga Jews were restricted to the small ghetto. Movement between the two ghettos – the large and small – could be affected only by means of a special permit issued by the German authorities. But many of the deportees did not even make it to the ghetto. After their arrival at Skirotava, elderly and sick people as well as children were put on vehicles that waited for them at the station. Those vehicles were gas vans, in where all of them were murdered.
Transport No. 16 left Vienna (Wien) at 5:40 pm on February 6, 1942 from Aspangbahnhof and arrived in Riga on February 10. This transport consisted of 1,000 Jews. The average age of the deportees was 54, 427 of the deportees were older than 61 years.
The Central Office for Jewish Emigration (Zentralstelle fuer jüdische Auswanderung), headed by SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer Alois Brunner, was responsible for conducting the deportation of Jews from Vienna. The first step was to send out orders to potential deportees indicating when they were to report at the assembly point. At the same time the local Jewish community instructed the deportees that were allowed to take baggage and personal effects not in excess of 50 kilograms. Each deportee was allowed to take 100 Reichsmark on his/her person.
The deportees were first requested to present themselves at the Jewish school on Kleine Sperlgasse 2, which served as the assembly point (Sammellager). In many cases the Jews were brought to the assembly point by SS men, or by groups of “wardens”; these were Jews, who were forced by the SS to assist in the deportation process. The very appearance of these Jewish wardens would strike terror in the community as it signaled imminent deportation. At the command of the SS, the Jewish wardens would block off streets - mostly at night – inhabited by Jews. They would then force their way into the homes of those Jews whose names were on the deportation list and ensure that that were ready to leave. Where necessary, the Jewish wardens would help the deportees pack their personal effects. In cases where potential deportees were not at home, the Jewish wardens were in serious danger of being included in the transport themselves, to replace them. On arrival at the school grounds, Jewish deportees had to hand over the keys to their homes.
The gathering point for deportees was under the supervision of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration. Sometimes as many as 2,000 people waited at the school for days, even weeks, to be deported. They would sleep on the floor or on straw sacks. Sanitary conditions at the school were understandably abysmal and reflected the state of mind of the people waiting to be expelled. Some people suffered nervous breakdowns; others committed suicide. The two doctors and two nurses on site did their best to ease the situation. While they waited at the gathering point, the Jews would undergo a registration procedure called “Kommissionierung”, which was often accompanied by violence. The staff of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna, among them Anton Brunner, would force the Jews to declare all their property before signing a document confirming that they were transferring everything they owned to the state. The Jews were also forced to hand over to Central Office representatives all the valuables and cash they had on their persons. The Gestapo then went on to sell all confiscated Jewish property.
After a few days, the Jews were brought from the school compound to the station. Armed police guarded the train during its entire journey. According to testimonies, Alois Brunner, head of the Central Office, was the commanding officer on the train. On arrival at the Skirotava station in Riga, around 700 deportees were transferred to waiting buses, including the elderly and the sick and children who were not capable of making the long distance to the ghetto on foot in the bitter cold. But these vehicles were actually gas trucks and the Jews were summarily murdered in them. Around 300 of the deportees from this transport actually reached the ghetto. By the end of the war, only 36 had survived.
Below is an extract from the writings of Gertrude Schneider, who was on this transport and wrote several books about the deportations from Vienna. According to her testimony, this transport included several Jews who had been expelled to Nisko in 1939 and were later returned to Vienna:
On Sunday, February 1, 1942, just as we were getting up, there was a knock on the door. Jewish employees of the Kultusgemeinde, called Ordner, had come to tell us that we had one hour to get ready for “resettlement”. Police and SS had closed off Lilienbrunngasse, and now it was our turn. An hour or so later, […] SS Untersturmführer Alfred Slawik arrived at our apartment. My father showed him his I.D. card, which certified that he was “important to the economy”. Slawik was not impressed but said that the officials at the Sperlschule would decide what was to be done with us. […] On Wednesday, February 4, Anton Brunner (Brunner II), the commissar, tore up our I.D. cards and passports, […] he told my father that he could now do some real work in the East. As of this moment, we had ceased to be Austrian citizens. Our transport, containing 999 “registered” Jews and approximately 20 others not listed, left on Friday, February 6, and the transport leader was none other than the almighty Alois Brunner (Brunner I). Just before leaving, in early afternoon, after young Elisabeth Holzer had been brought to the train and had been added to the twenty or so “criminals” […] an ambulance arrived and a weak old man was taken onto car two of the train, still in his pajamas, […] It was the well-known financier Siegmund Bosel; just forty-eight hours later, after a night of torture during which the unfortunate Bosel was chained to our car, Alois Brunner wearied of the game and shot him.[…] Our train reached Riga’s Skirotava Station on Tuesday, February 10. Alois Brunner was greeted by a tall, impeccably dressed SS officer, […] As we stood freezing in front of the train, Lange addressed us as “Ladies and Gentlemen”, and informed us that it was quite far to the ghetto, about 6 kilometers, that the temperature was 42 degrees below zero, and that he would therefore advise those who thought walking would be a hardship and strenuous to avail themselves of taking the buses waiting nearby. He added that the people who opted for the buses would be able to prepare a place in the ghetto for those of their friends and relatives who decided to walk. Almost 700 of the newly arrived Viennese Jews chose to ride in the blue buses, […] There was also an odd-looking, large van; […] after we had started walking, Lange’s behavior changed […] by being called "Ihr blödes Volk, kommt ‘mal her” (you stupid people, come here at once).
Several hours later, after walking on the icy streets of Riga, prodded mercilessly by the rifle butts of the Latvian SS, we finally reached the ghetto.
The following is an excerpt from the testimony of Nina Unger concerning the transport:
Friday, February 6, the vans were waiting for us in front of the school, and the Austrians stood there and laughed at our discomfort [...]
We left Aspangbahnhof in late afternoon and after a harrowing trip we arrived at Riga’s Skirotava Station on Tuesday, February 10. […] It was obvious that mother could never walk the six or seven kilometers to the ghetto and so she took the hand luggage and went by bus … never to be seen again.
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