deportations

<h2>German Occupation of Hungary</h2>
<p>Hungarian units suffered tremendous losses during the German defeat at Stalingrad on the eastern front in 1942–1943. After the defeat, Hungarian Admiral Miklos Horthy and Prime Minister Miklos Kallay recognized that Germany would likely lose the war.</p>
<p>With Horthy's tacit approval, Kallay tried to negotiate a separate armistice for Hungary with the western Allies. To prevent these efforts, German forces occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. Horthy was permitted to remain as Regent. Kallay was dismissed and the Germans installed General Dome Sztojay as prime minister. Sztojay had previously served as Hungarian minister to Berlin and was fanatically pro-German. He committed Hungary to continuing the war effort and cooperated with the Germans in their efforts to deport the Hungarian Jews.</p>
<h2>Ghettoization of Hungarian Jews</h2>
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<p>In April 1944, Hungarian authorities ordered Hungarian Jews living outside <a href="/narrative/4669/en">Budapest</a> (roughly 500,000) to concentrate in certain cities, usually regional government seats. Hungarian gendarmes were sent into the rural regions to round up the Jews and dispatch them to the cities.</p>
<p>The urban areas in which the Jews were forced to concentrate were enclosed and referred to as <em>ghettos</em>. Sometimes the <a href="/narrative/286/en">ghettos</a> encompassed the area of a former Jewish neighborhood. In other cases the ghetto was merely a single building, such as a factory.</p>
<p>In some Hungarian cities, Jews were compelled to live outdoors, without shelter or sanitary facilities. Food and water supplies were dangerously inadequate. Medical care was virtually non-existent. Hungarian authorities forbade the Jews from leaving the ghettos. Police guarded the perimeters of the enclosures. Individual gendarmes often tortured Jews and extorted personal valuables from them. None of these ghettos existed for more than a few weeks and many were liquidated within days.</p>
<h2>Deportation of Hungarian Jews</h2>
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<p>In mid-May 1944, the Hungarian authorities, in coordination with the German Security Police, began to systematically deport the Hungarian Jews. SS Colonel <a href="/narrative/10832/en">Adolf Eichmann</a> was chief of the team of "deportation experts" that worked with the Hungarian authorities. The Hungarian police carried out the roundups and forced the Jews onto the <a href="/narrative/5041/en">deportation</a> trains.</p>
<p>In less than two months, nearly 440,000 Jews were deported from Hungary in more than 145 trains. Most were deported to <a href="/narrative/3673/en">Auschwitz</a>. Thousands were also sent to the border with Austria to be used for digging fortification trenches. By the end of July 1944, the only Jewish community left in Hungary was that of Budapest, the capital.</p>
<h2>Szalasi Regime</h2>
<p>In light of the worsening military situation and facing threats (from Allied leaders) of war crimes trials, Horthy ordered a halt to the deportations on July 7, 1944. In August, he dismissed the Sztojay government and resumed efforts to reach an armistice, this time with the Soviet Union whose army was on Hungary's borders.</p>
<p>Horthy had begun final negotiations with Soviet army commanders by mid-October, 1944, when the Germans sponsored a coup d'etat. They arrested Horthy and installed a new Hungarian government under Ferenc Szalasi, the leader of the fascist and radically antisemitic Arrow Cross party.</p>
<p>During the Szalasi regime, Arrow Cross gangs perpetrated a reign of arbitrary terror against the Jews of <a href="/narrative/4669/en">Budapest</a>. Hundreds of Jews, both men and women, were violently murdered. Many others died from the brutal conditions of forced labor to which the Arrow Cross subjected them.</p>
<p>In November 1944, the Arrow Cross regime ordered the remaining Jews of Budapest into a ghetto which, covering an area of 0.1 square miles, held nearly 70,000 people. Several thousand Budapest Jews were also marched on foot under Hungarian guard to the Austrian border during November and December 1944. Many who were too weak to continue marching in the bitter cold were shot along the way.</p>
<h2>Armistice and Liberation</h2>
<p>In January 1945, with Soviet forces already in the Pest section of Budapest, Hungary signed an armistice. Soviet forces liberated the Buda section of the city on February 13, 1945. Soviet troops drove the last German units and their Arrow Cross collaborators out of western Hungary in early April 1945.</p>
<p>Of approximately 825,000 Jews living in Hungary in 1941, about 63,000 died or were killed prior to the German occupation of March 1944. Under German occupation, just over 500,000 died from maltreatment or were murdered. Some 255,000 Jews, less than one-third of those who had lived within enlarged Hungary in March 1944, survived the <a href="/narrative/72/en">Holocaust</a>. About 190,000 of these were residents of Hungary in its 1920 borders.</p>

Tags

deportations

All Content Tagged 'deportations'

<p>Hungarian Jews on their way to the gas chambers. Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, May 1944.</p>

<p>Jews carrying their possessions during deportation to the <a href="/narrative/3852/en">Chelmno</a> killing center. Most of the people seen here had previously been deported to Lodz from central Europe. Lodz, Poland, January–April 1942.</p>

<p>A collection of valises belonging to Jews who were <a href="/narrative/5041/en">deported to killing centers</a>. These valises are displayed at the base of the railcar on the third floor of the Permanent Exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington, DC, 1993–1995.</p>

<p>A family of Macedonian Jews carries their luggage down a flight of stairs as they leave the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp for the deportation trains. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.</p>

<p>Austrian police round up <a href="/narrative/5123/en">Romani (Gypsy)</a> families from Vienna for deportation to Poland. Austria, September-December 1939.</p>

<p>View of the village of Chelmno. To the left of the church is the Schloss, one of two sites of the <a href="/narrative/3852/en">Chelmno</a> camp. The Schloss, an old country estate, served as the reception and killing center for victims until it was demolished in April 1943. Chelmno, Poland, 1939–1943.</p>

<p>Jewish women and children are transported by horse-drawn wagon during a deportation action in the Siedlce ghetto. During the liquidation of the ghetto on August 22-24, 1942, 10,000 Jews were deported to the Treblinka killing center. </p>

<p>A deserted street in the area of the <a href="/narrative/11710/en">Sighet Marmatiei</a> ghetto. This photograph was taken after the deportation of the ghetto population. Sighet Marmatiei, Hungary, May 1944.</p>

<p>Aleksander Belev, Bulgarian commissioner for Jewish Affairs (center, wearing hat and facing the camera), oversees the deportation of Jews. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.</p>

<p>Bulgarian authorities round up Jews in occupied Macedonia for deportation. They were first held in a camp in Skopje and then deported to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka</a> killing center in German-occupied Poland. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.</p>

<p>Jews forced to board a deportation ship in the Danube River port of Lom during deportations from Bulgarian-occupied territories. They were deported, through <a href="/narrative/6000/en">Vienna</a>, to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka</a> camp in German-occupied Poland. Lom, Bulgaria, March 1943.</p>

<p>A pair of shoes left behind after a deportation action in the <a href="/narrative/3182/en">Kovno</a> ghetto. Photographer George Kadish captioned the photo "The body is gone." Kovno, Lithuania, circa 1943.</p>

<p>Jews rounded up during the <a href="/narrative/3636/en">Warsaw ghetto uprising</a> are forced to march to the assembly point for deportation. Warsaw, Poland, April or May 1943.</p>

<p>Photograph from SS General Juergen Stroop's report showing the <a href="/narrative/2014/en">Warsaw ghetto </a>after the German suppression of the <a href="/narrative/3636/en">ghetto uprising</a>. Stroop, commander of German forces that suppressed the Warsaw ghetto uprising, compiled an album of photographs and other materials. This album later came to known as "The Stroop Report." The right of this image from the album shows a column of Jews being transported out of the ghetto for deportation. Warsaw, Poland, April–May, 1943.</p>

Jews on the platform during a deportation from the Warsaw ghetto, October 1940 - May 1943.

Article Theresienstadt: Concentration/Transit Camp for German and Austrian Jews

<p>In this portrait, Helena Husserlova, wearing a Jewish badge, poses with her daughter Zdenka who is holding a teddy bear. The photograph was taken shortly before they were deported to <a href="/narrative/5386/en">Theresienstadt</a>.</p>
<p>Zdenka was born in Prague on February 6, 1939. On October 10, 1941, when Zdenka was just two and a half years old, her father was deported to the Lodz ghetto. He died there almost a year later, on September 23, 1942. Following his deportation, Helena and Zdenka returned to Helena's hometown to live with her mother and uncle. They stayed there for a year before they were deported to Theresienstadt on November 16, 1942. Helena was subsequently deported to <a href="/narrative/3673/en">Auschwitz</a> on October 19, 1944, where she died at the age of 34. Zdenka remained in Theresienstadt until the liberation. After the war Zdenka was placed on a transport of 300 child survivors to England sponsored by the British philanthropist, Leonard Montefiore.</p>
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<p>Jews assembled in the Siedlce ghetto during a deportation are forced to march toward the railway station. Siedlce, Poland, August 21–24, 1942.</p>

<p>Romanian soldiers supervise the deportation of Jews from Kishinev. Kishinev, Bessarabia, Romania, October 28, 1941.</p>

<p>French police check the identity cards of pedestrians during the roundup of Jews on the Boulevard Voltaire (near the Place de la Republique) in <a href="/narrative/6033/en">Paris</a>, France, August 20, 1941.</p>

<p>Roundup of Jews. Paris, <a href="/narrative/4997/en">France</a>, ca. 1942.</p>

<p>Belongings of Jews who were deported from <a href="/narrative/6000/en">Vienna</a>. Austria, 1941–42.</p>

<p>Jews deported from Prague, <a href="/narrative/7295/en">Czechoslovakia</a>, move their belongings through the streets of the <a href="/narrative/2152/en">Lodz</a> ghetto in occupied Poland. November 20, 1941.</p>

<p>A synagogue used as a warehouse for the belongings of deported Jews. Szeged ghetto, <a href="/narrative/6229/en">Hungary</a>, 1944.</p>

<p>Jewish families with bundles of belongings during deportation from the <a href="/narrative/3182/en">Kovno</a> ghetto in <a href="/narrative/5762/en">Lithuania</a> to <a href="/narrative/6400/en">Riga</a> in neighboring <a href="/narrative/5729/en">Latvia</a>. Kovno, Lithuania, 1942.</p>

<p>Jews from Bulgarian-occupied territories during deportation along the Danube to Vienna, from where they were deported by train to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka</a> <a href="/narrative/2746/en">killing center</a> in German-occupied Poland. Lom, Bulgaria, March 1943.</p>

<p>After the Germans annexed Austria in 1938, Leo attempted to flee. He eventually reached Belgium. In 1940 he was deported to the St.-Cyprien camp in France but escaped. In 1942 Leo was smuggled into Switzerland but was arrested and sent back to France, this time to the Rivesaltes and Drancy camps. He and a friend escaped from a train deporting them to Auschwitz in Poland. Leo joined the French underground in 1943. He arrived in the United States in 1947.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jews from Bielefeld in <a href="/narrative/4967/en">Germany</a> to <a href="/narrative/6400/en">Riga</a> in <a href="/narrative/5729/en">Latvia</a>. Bielefeld, Germany, December 13, 1941.</p>

<p>The SS compiled lists of Jews who were to be deported to ghettos, concentration camps, and killing centers. This document provides the names, birthdates, marital status, and addresses of Jews who were “evacuated” on November 20, 1941 from Germany to the Riga ghetto in German-occupied Latvia.</p>

<p>Buses waiting at the entrance to the <a href="/narrative/11768/en">Vélodrome d'Hiver</a>, where almost 13,000 Jews were assembled before being transported to Drancy and other French transit camps. Paris, France, July 16 and 17, 1942.</p>

<p>A Jewish woman during a deportation from the <a href="/narrative/2014/en">Warsaw</a> ghetto. Warsaw, Poland, between October 1940 and May 1943.</p>

<p>A member of the German SS supervises the boarding of Jews onto trains during a deportation action in the <a href="/narrative/3055/en">Krakow</a> ghetto. Krakow, Poland, 1941–1942.</p>

<p>Property confiscated from deported Jews is stacked in a synagogue. Prague, <a href="/narrative/7295/en">Czechoslovakia</a>, 1941–45.</p>

<p>A group of Jewish men on a train platform with French policemen at the Austerlitz station before deportation to the Pithiviers internment camp. <a href="/narrative/6033/en">Paris</a>, France, May 1941.</p>

<p>After the first roundup in <a href="/narrative/6033/en">Paris</a>, French police escort foreign Jewish men from the Japy school to deportation trains at the Austerlitz station. Paris, France, May 14, 1941.</p>

<p>Foreign Jews arrested in Paris at the Austerlitz train station before deportation to the French-administered internment camps Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande in the Loire region. <a href="/narrative/6033/en">Paris</a>, France, ca. May 1941.</p>

<p>A German postcard showing the entrance to the <a href="/narrative/2152/en">Lodz</a> ghetto. The sign reads "Jewish residential area—entry forbidden." Signs forbidding entrance to Poles and Germans were posted at all entrances to the ghetto. Lodz, Poland, 1940–1941.</p>

<p>Deportation from the <a href="/narrative/3182/en">Kovno</a> ghetto to forced-labor camps in <a href="/narrative/5858/en">Estonia</a>. Kovno, Lithuania, October 1943.</p>

<p>Jews from Macedonia who were rounded up and assembled in the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp before deportation to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka killing center</a>. Skopje, <a href="/narrative/6153/en">Yugoslavia</a>, March 1943.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Jews of <a href="/narrative/5955/en">Bulgarian-occupied</a> Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to Treblinka.</span></p>

Article Luxembourg

<p class="document-desc moreless">Aerial photograph of a Fascist rally in Merano, Italy, 1935–37.</p>
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<p>Jewish deportees, guarded by French police, board a train at the Austerlitz station for transport to the Pithiviers internment camp. <a href="/narrative/6033/en">Paris</a>, France, May 1941.</p>

<p>A transport of Jewish prisoners forced to march through the snow from the Bauschovitz train station to <a href="/narrative/5386/en">Theresienstadt</a>. Czechoslovakia, 1942.</p>

<p>Young German soldiers assist in the <a href="/narrative/5041/en">deportation</a> of Jews from the Zychlin <a href="/narrative/286/en">ghetto</a> to the <a href="/narrative/3852/en">Chelmno</a> killing center. The Nazis planned this deportation to fall on the Jewish holiday of <a href="/narrative/9164/en">Purim</a>. Poland, March 3, 1942.</p>

<p>At the <a href="/narrative/6692/en">Wannsee Conference</a> in Berlin in January 1942, the SS (the elite guard of the Nazi state) and representatives of German government ministries estimated that the "<a href="/narrative/2816/en">Final Solution</a>," the Nazi plan to kill the Jews of Europe, would involve 11 million European Jews, including those from non-occupied countries such as Ireland, Sweden, Turkey, and Great Britain. Jews from Germany and German-occupied Europe were deported by rail to the <a href="/narrative/2746/en">killing centers</a> in occupied Poland, where they were killed. The Germans attempted to disguise their intentions, referring to deportations as "resettlement to the east." The victims were told they were to be taken to labor camps, but in reality, from 1942 onward, deportation for most Jews meant transit to killing centers and then death.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jews from Bielefeld in <a href="/narrative/4967/en">Germany</a> to <a href="/narrative/6400/en">Riga</a> in <a href="/narrative/5729/en">Latvia</a>. Bielefeld, Germany, December 13, 1941.</p>

<p>Many different kinds of railway cars were used for deportations. They varied in size and weight. The railway car on display in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Permanent Exhibition is of just one type used. The dimensions of the railway car in the Museum's exhibition are as follows: Total length 31 feet 6 inches (9.6 meters); interior space for deportees 26 feet 2 inches (8 meters). Total height 14 feet (4.3 meters) from the bottom of the wheel to the highest point of the car; interior space for deportees (ceiling curves down from the middle): 7 feet 4 inches (2.2 meters ) at the center; 7 feet (2.1 meters) at the sides. Total width 13 feet 2 inches (4 meters, including the roofing); interior space for deportees: 8 feet 10 inches (2.7 meters).</p>

<p>Many different kinds of railway cars were used for deportations. They varied in size and weight. The railway car on display in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Permanent Exhibition is of just one type used. The dimensions of the railway car in the Museum's exhibition are as follows: Total length 31 feet 6 inches (9.6 meters); interior space for deportees 26 feet 2 inches (8 meters). Total height 14 feet (4.3 meters) from the bottom of the wheel to the highest point of the car; interior space for deportees (ceiling curves down from the middle): 7 feet 4 inches (2.2 meters ) at the center; 7 feet (2.1 meters) at the sides. Total width 13 feet 2 inches (4 meters, including the roofing); interior space for deportees: 8 feet 10 inches (2.7 meters).</p>

<p>Deportation of Slovak Jews. The victims wear tags and are escorted by Slovak guards. Czechoslovakia, ca. 1942.</p>

<p>A transport of Jews from <a href="/narrative/6229/en">Hungary</a> arrives at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Poland, May 1944.</p>

<p>Adolf Eichmann, SS official in charge of deporting European Jewry. Germany, 1940.</p>

<p><a href="/narrative/10832/en">Adolf Eichmann</a>, SS official in charge of deporting European Jewry. Germany, 1943.</p>

Media Gallery Auschwitz: Oral History Excerpts

Media Gallery Deportation from Sighet

Media Gallery The Armenian Genocide

Media Gallery Genocide of European Roma (Gypsies)

Media Gallery Sighet: Maps

<p>Jews are forced into boxcars for deportation to the <a href="/narrative/3769/en">Belzec</a> killing center. Lublin, Poland, 1942.</p>

Media Gallery Vladka Meed

Media Gallery Roma: ID Cards

Media Gallery The Netherlands: Maps

Media Gallery Elie Wiesel

<p>Jewish residents of the Szeged ghetto assemble for deportation. Szeged, <a href="/narrative/6229/en">Hungary</a>, June 1944.</p>

<p>Jewish deportees from Luxembourg, Austria, and Czechoslovakia during deportation from the <a href="/narrative/2152/en">Lodz</a> ghetto to the <a href="/narrative/3852/en">Chelmno</a> killing center. Lodz, Poland, 1942.</p>

<p>Roundup of Jews. Paris, <a href="/narrative/4997/en">France</a>, ca. 1942.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jewish women from the <a href="/narrative/2014/en">Warsaw</a> ghetto. Poland, 1942-1943.</p>

<p>A member of the German SS supervises the boarding of Jews onto trains during a deportation action in the <a href="/narrative/3055/en">Krakow</a> ghetto. Krakow, Poland, 1941–1942.</p>

<p>This clandestine photograph taken by <a href="/narrative/11692/en">George Kadish</a> captures a scene during the deportation of Jews from the <a href="/narrative/3182/en">Kovno</a> ghetto in German-occupied Lithuania in 1942.</p>

<p>People gathered along the street watch as Jews are rounded up and marched through Lvov. Lvov, Poland, June-July 1941.</p>

<p>Deportation of German Jews from Hanau to Theresienstadt. Hanau, Germany, May 30, 1942.</p>

<p>Map of Theresienstadt from an original document (1942-1945) and mounted in an album assembled by a survivor.</p>

Article Theresienstadt: Final Weeks, Liberation, and Postwar Trials

<p>Arrival of a transport of Dutch Jews in the <a href="/narrative/5386/en">Theresienstadt</a> ghetto. Czechoslovakia, February 1944.</p>

Article Theresienstadt: Transit Camp for Czech Jews

<p>Czech Jews are deported from Bauschovitz to <a href="/narrative/5386/en">Theresienstadt</a> ghetto. Czechoslovakia, between 1941 and 1943.</p>

<p>Deportation of German Jews to France, where Vichy officials would intern them in the <a href="/narrative/4842/en">Gurs</a> camp (in southwestern France). Gailingen, Germany, October 1940.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jews by Bulgarian authorities. Lom, Bulgaria, March 1943.</p>

<p>Dutch Jews from Hooghalen during deportation to the <a href="/narrative/4469/en">Westerbork</a> transit camp. The Netherlands, October 1942.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jews from the <a href="/narrative/2152/en">Lodz</a> ghetto. Poland, August 1944.</p>

<p>German soldiers lead Jews captured during the <a href="/narrative/3636/en">Warsaw ghetto uprising</a> to the assembly point for deportation. Poland, May 1943.</p>

<p>Departure of a train of German Jews being deported to <a href="/narrative/11041/en">Theresienstadt</a>. Hanau, Germany, May 30, 1942.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jews from Hanau, near Frankfurt am Main, to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Hanau, Germany, May 30, 1942.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jews to <a href="/narrative/6400/en">Riga</a>, Latvia. Bielefeld, Germany, December 13, 1941.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jews from the <a href="/narrative/4469/en">Westerbork</a> transit camp. The Netherlands, 1943.</p>

<p>Jews are forced into boxcars for deportation to the <a href="/narrative/3769/en">Belzec</a> killing center. Lublin, Poland, 1942.</p>

<p>Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia and Thrace interned in the "Monopol" tobacco factory, which was was used as a transit camp. They were ultimately deported to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka</a> killing center. Skopje, Macedonia, March 11-31, 1943.</p>

<p>Jews in the town of Coesfeld, in northwestern Germany, assembled for deportation to the <a href="/narrative/6400/en">Riga</a> ghetto. Coesfeld, Germany, December 10, 1941.</p>

<p>Jews being deported from the <a href="/narrative/2014/en">Warsaw</a> ghetto board a freight train. Warsaw, Poland, July-September 1942.</p>

<p>Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia who were rounded up and assembled in the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp in Skopje prepare to board deportation trains. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.</p>

<p>Family members say goodbye to a <a href="/narrative/2562/en">child</a> through a fence at the ghetto's central prison where children, the sick, and the elderly were held before deportation to Chelmno during the "Gehsperre" action. Lodz, Poland, September 1942.</p>

<p>Postwar photo of a church in the village of Chelmno. Jews were kept in this building en route to the <a href="/narrative/3852/en">Chelmno </a>killing center. Chelmno, Poland, June 1945.</p>

<p>Scene during the deportation of Jews from Thrace to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka</a> killing center. Lom, Bulgaria, March 1943.</p>

<p>Selection of Hungarian Jews at the <a href="/narrative/3673/en">Auschwitz</a>-Birkenau killing center. Poland, May 1944.</p>

<p>This multistory complex served as the <a href="/narrative/4438/en">Drancy</a> transit camp. The overwhelming majority of Jews deported from France were held here prior to their deportation. Drancy, France, 1941–44.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jewish <a href="/narrative/2562/en">children</a> from the Lodz ghetto in German-occupied Poland during the "Gehsperre" Aktion, September 1942.</p>

<p>The <em>Donau</em>, one of the largest ships used to deport Jews from <a href="/narrative/6313/en">Norway</a> to Germany. From Germany, hundreds of Norwegian Jews were deported to <a href="/narrative/3673/en">Auschwitz</a>. Norway, 1943.</p>

<p>Jews deported from Germany and Austria march towards the <a href="/narrative/2152/en">Lodz</a> ghetto. Lodz, Poland, October 1941.</p>

<p>Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia interned at the "Monopol" tobacco factory, used as a transit camp, before deportation to the Treblinka killing center. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.</p>

<p>Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia interned in the "Monopol" tobacco factory, which was used as a transit camp. They were ultimately deported to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka</a> killing center. Skopje, Macedonia, March 1943.</p>

<p>An assembly point (the <em>Umschlagplatz</em>) in the <a href="/narrative/2014/en">Warsaw</a> ghetto for Jews rounded up for deportation. Warsaw, Poland, 1942–43.</p>

<p>Like other Jews, the Lewents were confined to the Warsaw ghetto. In 1942, as Abraham hid in a crawl space, the Germans seized his mother and sisters in a raid. They perished. He was deployed for forced labor nearby, but escaped to return to his father in the ghetto. In 1943, the two were deported to Majdanek, where Abraham's father died. Abraham later was sent to Skarzysko, Buchenwald, Schlieben, Bisingen, and Dachau. US troops liberated Abraham as the Germans evacuated prisoners.</p>

<p>Like other Jews, the Lewents were confined to the Warsaw ghetto. In 1942, as Abraham hid in a crawl space, the Germans seized his mother and sisters in a raid. They perished. He was deployed for forced labor nearby, but escaped to return to his father in the ghetto. In 1943, the two were deported to Majdanek, where Abraham's father died. Abraham later was sent to Skarzysko, Buchenwald, Schlieben, Bisingen, and Dachau. US troops liberated Abraham as the Germans evacuated prisoners.</p>

<p>Ottoman troops guard Armenians being deported. Ottoman Empire, 1915-16.</p>

<p>In April 1944, after the German occupation of Hungary, Agi, her mother, six-year-old brother, and aunt were forced into the Munkacs ghetto. Before deportation to Auschwitz, Agi was forced to work in the ghetto's brick factory. At Auschwitz, Agi, then 14 years old, was chosen as part of a Sonderkommando. This forced-labor detachment had to sort the clothing and possessions of inmates and victims at Auschwitz. In January 1945, Agi and other prisoners were forced on a death march from Auschwitz. She was liberated by Soviet forces in April/May 1945.</p>

<p>Agnes was in Switzerland in 1939 to study French. She returned to Budapest in 1940. After the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944, Agnes was given refuge in the Swedish embassy. She then began to work for Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg in his efforts to save the Jews of Budapest, including the distribution of protective passes (Schutzpaesse). When the Soviets entered Budapest, Agnes decided to go to Romania. After the war, she went to Sweden and Australia before moving to the United States.</p>

<p>Serbs and <a href="/narrative/4500/en">Roma</a> (Gypsies) who have been rounded up for deportation are marched to the <a href="/narrative/5875/en">Jasenovac</a> concentration camp under Ustasa guard. Yugoslavia, 1942–43.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto. Jews from the ghetto board a deportation train with the assistance of Jewish police. Warsaw, Poland, 1943.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jews from Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.</p>
<p>The Jews of <a href="/narrative/5955/en">Bulgarian-occupied</a> Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to Treblinka.</p>

<p>A family of Macedonian Jews in the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp in Skopje before deportation. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Jews of <a href="/narrative/5955/en">Bulgarian-occupied</a> Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka</a>.</span></p>

<p>Deportation of Slovak Jews. The victims wear tags and are escorted by Slovak guards. Czechoslovakia, ca. 1942.</p>

<p>Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia who were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp in Skopje before deportation to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka</a> killing center. Skopje, <a href="/narrative/6153/en">Yugoslavia</a>, March 1943.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Jews of <a href="/narrative/5955/en">Bulgarian-occupied</a> Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to Treblinka.</span></p>

<p>Jews outside the Monopol tobacco factory, used as a transit camp by Bulgarian authorities during deportations from Macedonia to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka killing center</a> in German-occupied Poland. Skopje, <a href="/narrative/6153/en">Yugoslavia</a>, March 1943.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Jews of <a href="/narrative/5955/en">Bulgarian-occupied</a> Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to Treblinka.</span></p>

<p>Jews prepare soup outside the Monopol tobacco factory, used as a transit camp by Bulgarian authorities during deportations of Jews from Macedonia. Skopje, <a href="/narrative/6153/en">Yugoslavia</a>, March 1943.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Jews of <a href="/narrative/5955/en">Bulgarian-occupied</a> Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka</a> killing center. </span></p>

<p>Macedonian Jews leave the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp in Skopje for the deportation trains. Skopje, Yugoslavia, March 1943.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Jews of <a href="/narrative/5955/en">Bulgarian-occupied</a> Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka</a> killing center.</span></p>

<p>Jews bound for the rail station during deportation action from Sighet. May 18, 1944.</p>

<p>Jews carrying their possessions during deportation to the <a href="/narrative/3852/en">Chelmno</a> killing center. Most of the people seen here had previously been deported to Lodz from central Europe. Lodz, Poland, January–April 1942.</p>

<p>Jews at the railroad station before deportation. Puchov, Czechoslovakia, March 1942. (Source record ID: E39 Nr.2447/8)</p>

<p>Jews load a barrel of water onto a deportation train in Skopje. In March 1943, Jews of Macedonia were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, where several building had been converted into a transit camp. <a href="/narrative/5955/en">Bulgarian occupation</a> authorities deported them by train to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka</a> killing center. Skopje, <a href="/narrative/6153/en">Yugoslavia</a>, March 1943.</p>

<p>Macedonian Jews prepare to board a deportation train in Skopje. Skopje, <a href="/narrative/6153/en">Yugoslavia</a>, March 1943.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Jews of <a href="/narrative/5955/en">Bulgarian-occupied</a> Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka killing center</a>.</span></p>

<p>Jews from Macedonia who were rounded up and assembled in the Tobacco Monopoly transit camp before deportation to the <a href="/narrative/3819/en">Treblinka killing center</a>. Skopje, <a href="/narrative/6153/en">Yugoslavia</a>, March 1943.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Jews of <a href="/narrative/5955/en">Bulgarian-occupied</a> Thrace and Macedonia were deported in March 1943. On March 11, 1943, over 7,000 Macedonian Jews from Skopje, Bitola, and Stip were rounded up and assembled at the Tobacco Monopoly in Skopje, whose several buildings had been hastily converted into a transit camp. The Macedonian Jews were kept there between eleven and eighteen days, before being deported by train in three transports between March 22 and 29, to Treblinka.</span></p>

<p>View of the burned-out Malbish Arimim synagogue on Teglash Street in Sighet. This photograph was taken after the deportation of the Jewish population. May 1944.</p>

<p>Deportation from the <a href="/narrative/3055/en">Krakow</a> ghetto at the time of the ghetto's liquidation. Krakow, Poland, March 1943.</p>

<p>Under guard, Jewish men, women, and children board trains during deportation from Siedlce to the Treblinka killing center. Siedlce, Poland, August 1942.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jews from Plzen (Pilsen) to <a href="/narrative/5386/en">Theresienstadt</a>. The building in the background is the town theater. Czechoslovakia, 1942.</p>

<p>Deportation of Slovak Jews. Stropkov, Czechoslovakia, May 21, 1942.</p>

<p>Aron was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Slonim, a part of Poland between the two world wars. His parents owned a clothing store. After studying in a technical school, Aron worked as a motion-picture projectionist in a small town near Slonim. The Soviet army took over Slonim in September 1939. War broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union in June 1941. Aron returned to Slonim. The Germans soon occupied Slonim, and later forced the Jews into a ghetto. Aron was forced to work in an armaments factory, and was able to smuggle arms into the ghetto. After helping his family escape when the Germans destroyed the ghetto, Aron worked in Grodno until he was arrested. While being deported from Grodno, Aron jumped off the cattle car. He eventually managed to escape from Grodno and join the underground outside Vilna. After the war, he and his wife (whom he had met in the Slonim ghetto) immigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago.</p>

<p>Aron was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Slonim, a part of Poland between the two world wars. His parents owned a clothing store. After studying in a technical school, Aron worked as a motion-picture projectionist in a small town near Slonim. The Soviet army took over Slonim in September 1939. War broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union in June 1941. Aron returned to Slonim. The Germans soon occupied Slonim, and later forced the Jews into a ghetto. Aron was forced to work in an armaments factory, and was able to smuggle arms into the ghetto. After helping his family escape when the Germans destroyed the ghetto, Aron worked in Grodno until he was arrested. While being deported from Grodno, Aron jumped off the cattle car. He eventually managed to escape from Grodno and join the underground outside Vilna. After the war, he and his wife (whom he had met in the Slonim ghetto) immigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago.</p>

<p>Barbara was born in the province of Arad in northern Transylvania, Romania. She went to school until the Hungarian army occupied the area in 1940 and she was no longer allowed to attend. After the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944, discrimination against Jews intensified. Barbara and her family were forced into the Oradea ghetto. She worked in the ghetto hospital until she was deported to the Auschwitz camp. At Auschwitz, she worked in the kitchens to receive extra food. She was deported to another camp, and later forced on a death march. Toward the war's end, the Red Cross rescued Barbara. She returned to Arad after World War II and worked as a biochemist.</p>

<p>Following the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, Bart was forced into a ghetto established in his home town. From May to July 1944, the Germans deported Jews from Hungary to the Auschwitz killing center in occupied Poland. Bart was deported by cattle car to Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, he was selected to perform forced labor, drilling and digging in a coal mine. As Soviet forces advanced toward the Auschwitz camp in January 1945, the Germans forced most of the prisoners on a death march out of the camp. Along with a number of ill prisoners who were in the camp infirmary, Bart was one of the few inmates who remained in the camp at the time of liberation.</p>

<p>Jews were deported from Kavala, Seres, and Drama in Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia. Some 3,000 Jews were taken to Drama and herded onto trains without food or water for transport to a camp in Gorna Dzumaya. The Jews were probably then taken to the Bulgarian port of Lom on the Danube River, where they boarded ships for Vienna. From there, the Nazis deported them to the Treblinka killing center.</p>

<p>Beginning in 1941, the Germans deported Jews in Germany to the occupied eastern territories. At first, they deported thousands of Jews to ghettos in Poland and the Baltic states. Those deported would share the fate of local Jews. Later, many deportation transports from Germany went directly to the killing centers in occupied Poland. In this footage, a German propaganda unit films recent arrivals from Magdeburg, Germany, in a collection center run by the Jewish council in the Warsaw ghetto. In July 1942, the Nazis began mass deportations of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the nearby Treblinka killing center.</p>

<p><a href="/narrative/2152/en">Lodz</a> had the second largest Jewish population in prewar Poland, after Warsaw. German troops occupied Lodz in September 1939. In early February 1940, the Germans established a ghetto in Lodz and crowded more than 150,000 Jews into an area of about one and a half square miles. In 1941 and 1942 almost 40,000 Central European Jews and 5,000 <a href="/narrative/4500/en">Roma</a> (Gypsies) were also forced into the ghetto. Between January and September 1942, over 75,000 ghetto residents were deported from Lodz to the <a href="/narrative/3852/en">Chelmno</a> killing center. By the spring of 1944, the Lodz ghetto was the last remaining in German-occupied Poland. During that summer, the Germans deported the remaining Jews, most of them to Auschwitz.</p>

<p>Jews carrying bundles of possessions who were forced to gather at an assembly point before their deportation from the <a href="/narrative/3182/en">Kovno ghetto</a>, probably to Estonia. Kovno, Lithuania, October 1943.</p>
<p>This photograph was taken by <a href="/narrative/11692/en">George Kadish</a>. </p>

<p>Scene during the deportation of Jews in occupied Poland. Place and date uncertain. </p>

<p>Deportation from the <a href="/narrative/4469/en">Westerbork</a> transit camp. Members of the Jewish police are seen in the photograph. The Netherlands, 1943–44.</p>

<p>Deportation of Jews from the Jozsefvarosi train station in <a href="/narrative/4669/en">Budapest</a>. <a href="/narrative/6229/en">Hungary</a>, November 1944.</p>

<p>Blanka was an only child in a close-knit family in Lodz, Poland. Her father died in 1937. After the German invasion of Poland, Blanka and her mother remained in Lodz with Blanka's grandmother, who was unable to travel. Along with other relatives, they were forced into the Lodz ghetto in 1940. There, Blanka worked in a bakery. She and her mother later worked in a hospital in the Lodz ghetto, where they remained until late 1944 when they were deported to the Ravensbrueck camp in Germany. From Ravensbrueck, Blanka and her mother were sent to a subcamp of Sachsenhausen. Blanka was forced to work in an airplane factory (Arado-Werke). Her mother was sent to another camp. Soviet forces liberated Blanka in spring 1945. Blanka, living in abandoned houses, made her way back to Lodz. She discovered that none of her relatives, including her mother, had survived. Blanka then moved westward to Berlin, eventually to a displaced persons camp. She immigrated to the United States in 1947.</p>

<p>Ustaša (Croatian fascist) soldiers oversee the deportation of a group of civilians from Kozara region to a concentration camp, in the pro-German fascist state of Croatia established following the partition of Yugoslavia. Croatia, between 1941 and 1944.</p>

<p>The <em>Monte Rosa</em> (right), one of the ships used to deport Jews from Norway to Germany. Norway, 1943.</p>

<p>The <em>Gotenland</em>, one of the ships used during the deportation of Jews from Norway to Germany. Norway, 1943.</p>

<p>World War II began in September 1939. Brigitte and her family moved to Kovno, hoping to secure visas and passports for travel to North America. In July 1941, Brigitte and her family were forced to move into the Kovno ghetto after the Germans occupied Lithuania. Brigitte's family survived the "Great Action," but her mother died of ill health in the ghetto. After a roundup targeting children in March 1944, Brigitte escaped from the ghetto with the help of a former employee of her father. Soviet forces liberated Kovno in August 1944.</p>

<p>Cecilie was the youngest of six children born to a religious, middle-class Jewish family. In 1939, Hungary occupied Cecilie's area of Czechoslovakia. Members of her family were imprisoned. The Germans occupied Hungary in 1944. Cecilie and her family had to move into a ghetto in Huszt and were later deported to Auschwitz. Cecilie and her sister were chosen for forced labor; the rest of her family was gassed upon arrival. Cecilie was transferred to several other camps, where she labored in factories. Allied forces liberated her in 1945. After the war she was reunited with and married her fiance.</p>

<p>The Germans occupied David's town, previously annexed by Hungary, in 1944. David was deported to Auschwitz and, with his father, transported to Plaszow. David was sent to the Gross-Rosen camp and to Reichenbach. He was then among three of 150 in a cattle car who survived transportation to Dachau. He was liberated after a death march from Innsbruck toward the front line of combat between US and German troops.</p>

<p>David was born to a middle class Jewish family and attended a Jewish school. In August 1941, after the Germans occupied Kovno, he was forced into the Kovno ghetto, where he shared two rooms with his immediate and extended family. Many members of his extended family were killed during the Great Aktion in Kovno in October 1941. David worked in a forced-labor brigade in the ghetto. In March 1944, he witnessed the Kinder Aktion and was able to save his nephew. During the destruction of the Kovno ghetto, David and his surviving relatives were deported to different camps. David and his father were deported to Dachau; his mother and nephew were eventually deported to Auschwitz and killed.</p>

<p>Edward was born to a Jewish family in Hamburg. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws prohibited marriage or sexual relations between German non-Jews and Jews. Edward was then in his mid-twenties. Edward was arrested for dating a non-Jewish woman. Classified as a habitual offender, he was later deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, near Berlin. He was forced to perform hard labor in construction projects. Edward had married shortly before his imprisonment, and his wife made arrangements for their emigration from Germany. Edward was released from custody in September 1938 and left Germany. He stayed with relatives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and later immigrated to the United States.</p>

<p>Edward was born to a Jewish family in Hamburg. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws prohibited marriage or sexual relations between German non-Jews and Jews. Edward was then in his mid-twenties. Edward was arrested for dating a non-Jewish woman. Classified as a habitual offender, he was later deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, near Berlin. He was forced to perform hard labor in construction projects. Edward had married shortly before his imprisonment, and his wife made arrangements for their emigration from Germany. Edward was released from custody in September 1938 and left Germany. He stayed with relatives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and later immigrated to the United States.</p>

<p>Jewish women, children, and the elderly await deportation at the railroad station in Koszeg, a small town in northwestern Hungary. Koszeg, Hungary, 1944.</p>

<p>Jews carrying bundles of possessions who were forced to gather at an assembly point before their deportation from the <a href="/narrative/3182/en">Kovno ghetto</a>, probably to Estonia. Kovno, Lithuania, October 1943.</p>
<p>This photograph was taken by <a href="/narrative/11692/en">George Kadish</a>. </p>

<p>Thracian Jews crowd the upper deck of the <span class="highlight"><em>Karađorđe</em>, </span>a ship used for deportation, as it leaves the port of Lom. They were transported by ship along the Danube River to Vienna and then by rail to the Treblinka killing center in occupied Poland. Lom, Bulgaria, March 1943.</p>

<p>Thracian Jews crowded into an interior room of the <em>Karađorđe, </em>used as a deportation ship, just before it left the Danube River port of Lom. From Lom they were loaded onto four Bulgarian ships and taken to Vienna, where they were put on trains bound for the Treblinka killing center in occupied Poland. Lom, <a href="/narrative/5955/en">Bulgaria</a>, March 1943.</p>

<p class="document-desc moreless">Romanian Jews who were assembled in a Bessarabian village in September 1941 before deportation to Transnistria.</p>
<div class="datapair"> </div>

<p>Berta was born to a Jewish family. Orphaned when she was a child, she was raised by her Uncle Poldi in Vienna. In 1899 she married <a href="/narrative/9026/en">Bernard Krakauer</a>, a Jewish businessman from her hometown of Mikulov. As was the custom for orphans, Berta wore a black dress at her wedding. The couple settled in the town of Hodonin, where Bernard opened a dry goods and clothing store. They raised six children.</p>
<p>1933-39: With their children grown, Berta's husband retired in 1938. He sold the business and moved with Berta and their eldest son, <a href="/narrative/9032/en">Max</a>, who had been born with a heart condition, to the city of Brno where three other Krakauer children lived. In March 1939 the Germans occupied Bohemia and Moravia and quickly imposed restrictions on the Jewish population.</p>
<p>1940-45: On April 8, 1942, Berta, her husband and their son Max were ordered to report to a nursing school and to bring no more than 44 pounds of luggage each. They were deported to the <a href="/narrative/5386/en">Theresienstadt</a> ghetto in Czechoslovakia. From there, Max was deported to Poland. Berta and her husband later discovered that a sister-in-law of their daughter worked in the SS registry office; this woman made sure that the Krakauers' papers remained at the bottom of the pile of documents of those to be deported.</p>
<p>Berta and Bernard were freed in May 1945, and learned that three of their children had died in Nazi camps. In 1948 Berta died from a kidney disease contracted in Theresienstadt.</p>

<p>Jews from <a href="/narrative/10727/en">Subcarpathian Rus</a> get off the deportation train and assemble on the ramp at the <a href="/narrative/3673/en">Auschwitz-Birkenau</a> killing center in occupied Poland. May 1944. </p>

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