The transport left Strasshof an der Nordbahn, located 25 kilometers outside of Vienna (Wien) on March 8, 1945, and arrived in Theresienstadt on the same day. The transport consisted of 1,073 Jews from the Hungarian provinces who had been employed as forced laborers in the greater Vienna area, as well as in other provinces of Austria, including Niederdonau. The approaching Red Army forced the German authorities to evacuate Jewish prisoners from the areas near the front lines.
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The approaching Red Army forced the German authorities to evacuate Jewish prisoners from the areas near the front lines. However, There are several conflicting accounts regarding the circumstances in which these Jews were transferred to Theresienstadt: This group of Hungarian Jews was known as “Kastner’s Jews”. In the post war period, Hungarian Zionist activist, Rudolf Kastner, claimed that their fate was to be determined in negotiations he held with the SS. This decision might have been part of a late effort of several SS men to burnish their reputations. On February 24, SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dieter Wisliceny informed Kastner that he had persuaded Adolf Eichmann not to kill all Jews in Theresienstadt, and that he had been appointed as camp commander. Wisliceny claimed that he intended to divert a transport consisting of 1,500 Jews from Vienna to Theresienstadt, where they were to be kept alive. The credibility of Wisliceny’s account remains doubtful.

Upon arrival, the transport was listed in the ghetto records as IV/16. The Roman numeral IV/16.

.21.3% of the Jews on this transport were children; 229 of them were under the age of 12. At least five of them were born in Austria. 16.5% of the deportees were over the age of 61(177 ), and 64.4% were females(692). Some of the deportees were not fit for labor.
This was a group transport that collected Jews from several camps and towns, such as Floridsdorf and Stockerau.


Frieda Grosz, a member of this transport, recalls in her post war memoirs, that her family was first brought from Roseldorf to camp Stockerau , and then traveled by train to Thersienstadt. Their employer had supplied them with some bread and milk, which they distributed among the other deportees. The hygienic conditions in the cars were terrible, and many arrived in Thereistadt infected with lice. Subsequently they were diagnosed with typhus.

Excerpts from Mordechai Reismann Testimony (Hebrew –original)
After a stay in Strasshof, we were ordered to wait at the gate of the station at 6:00 a.m. We were told that were being taken, but no one said to where. The next morning I woke up, completely frozen after sleeping outside. I could barely walk. I joined a group of children and we boarded a train […] we were approximately 100 children […] they came from Strasshof, some had arrived with me, but the others had been in the camp prior to […] The train came from some other place […] I won’t forget how we boarded the train and traveled and traveled […] the journey was woeful, we sat on top of each other, with no food, water or latrines. The train actually stopped several times for a few hours, but we were not permitted to get off […] We arrived in Theresienstadt, they took us off the train …
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