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. 15 left Vienna (Wien) on January 26, 1942 from Aspangbahnhof, arriving at Riga on January 31. From the assembly site, the Jews were taken to the train station. This transport consisted of 1,200 Jewish deportees. 508 people were older than 61, the average age on this transport was 56 years. Only 36 people survived.
The Central Office for Jewish Emigration (Zentralstelle fuer juedische 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.
One of the survivors was Liane Neumann, an excerpt of whose testimony follows:
On January 18, 1942, SS men arrested me together with my family. They ordered us to take along food but to leave behind all our personal effects. They brought us to the school on Sperlgasse [...] we numbered about 1,500 men, women and children. At the assembly camp we encountered people who had been waiting a long time to be deported […] On January 25, 1942, SS men arrived […]. They ordered us to hand over all the goods we had with us except for objects that can be carried by hand, as this would be transferred to a special train car traveling before us. We duly handed over everything and never saw anything of it again. We had no idea where we were being deported to. On that very day trucks appeared and we were loaded onto the trucks and sent to the train station. The train cars were completely filled up. The moment we were inside, the train cars were locked shut, not to be opened until our arrival in Riga. The train ride took six days. It was freezing cold and we were given no food or water. What we had taken along from home was quickly finished and we started feeling pangs of hunger, but worst of all was the lack of water. We started sucking the ice that had accumulated on the train windows [...]. Many of [the deportees] froze to death before we arrived in Riga. We also had to relieve ourselves in the car. On arriving at the train station in Riga, we were forced to relinquish our personal belongings, which in Vienna they had still allowed us to take along. [This time] we were allowed to take only small bags. Even these bags we had to cast aside on the way to the ghetto because we had no strength to carry them. Just as we arrived, German and Latvian police told us that the elderly, the infirm and children who could not walk were permitted to travel by cart. Those people never reached the Ghetto. Along the way we were badly beaten, to force us to increase our pace. Anyone who fell down was shot on the spot. When we finally arrived, Jewish policeman brought us hot coffee. […] Behind the barbed wire fence we saw Latvian Jews who passed bread over to us […].
Show less