Stamboom Heinemann-Kuiper » Recha Frankfurter (1881-1943)

Persoonlijke gegevens Recha Frankfurter 

• Zij is geboren op 6 januari 1881.
• (Deportatie) op 10 september 1942 in Nürnberg, Bayern, Duitsland.Bron 1

  Deportatie naar Theresienstadt. Transport II/25, Zug Da 512.
  
  Prisoner number in that transport: 567
  
  In the month of September 1942 the Gestapo launched two large transports from Nuremberg and Würzburg to Theresienstadt, consisting of 1,681 Jews altogether. This was the fourth transport from Nuremberg and the first to depart the city for Theresienstadt.
  
  Following an order by the RSHA dated August 1, 1942 the State Police Head Office Nuremberg-Fürth carried out the deportation of 1,000 Jews on September 10, 1942. After many large deportations to the east, the majority of the remaining Jews in Nuremberg and Franconia were elderly, which was one of the criteria for being sent to Theresienstadt. 550 Jews from Nuremberg, 180 from Fürth, 128 from Bamberg and 142 Jews from Würzburg were to be deported. An extensive collection of files of the Würzburg Gestapo office concerning the deportation survived the war. Thus, this transport is one of few where all details about the organisational procedures and the participating officers are available, documenting how each community was affected.
  
  THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE TRANSPORT IN NUREMBERG
  
  On August 19, 1942 the State Police office in Nuremberg-Fürth sent out a detailed organisational chart to the authorities involved. Benno Martin, Nuremberg’s Chief of Police appointed a special commission to carry out the transport and ordered Dr. Theodor Grafenberger of the Gestapo Nuremberg-Fürth to head and organise it.
  
  The train was ordered by the Gestapo and was provided by senior civil servant Rauch of the Directorate of the German National Railway Nuremberg under the designation Da 512. It was scheduled to leave on September 10 at 18:25.
  
  Following a large air raid over Nuremberg on the night of August 27, the Gestapo had ordered all Jews still living in their apartments to clear them within six hours in order to make space for now homeless Germans. They had to move into the former old-age home at Johannisstrasse 17, which had already been sold by the Jewish community to the adjacent children’s hospital. Eight to ten persons were assigned to one of the small, empty rooms and held there for two weeks, guarded by SS men.
  
  The inhabitants of the old-age homes at Knauerstrasse 27 and Wielandstrasse 6 were allowed to stay where they were. On September 3, Gestapo officials informed the Jews of the upcoming transport and their deportation ID numbers were delivered to the Jewish community. They were told that in addition to 60 Reich marks, they could take their monthly allowance with them – usually between 150 to 200 Reich marks. However, on the day of deportation, all of these monies were confiscated.
  
  The Gestapo ordered the Jewish community to bring the deportees’ luggage to Johannisstrasse 17 on September 8 by 08:00 at the latest for examination. On September 8 and 9, Gestapo officials searched the luggage for forbidden items and confiscated many items. With the help of a moving company, the Jewish community had to organise and pay for the storage and transport of the luggage to Finkenstrasse station where it was loaded into freight cars.
  
  On September 10, the day of deportation, Gestapo officials rounded up over 500 deportees in Nuremberg. Three “Einholkommandos” (pick-up units) were formed for this purpose. Together they consisted of 15 officials from the criminal police, and 5 SS men who started their work at 05:00. They were under the command of Senior Criminal Assistant Fluhrer and his deputy Röder. Additionally, several officials formed a special command to evacuate bed-ridden residents and seal their apartments.
  
  The day before, on September 9, “pick-up unit I” cleared the old age home in Wielandstrasse 6. At 06:00 Criminal Secretary Bedacht together with a team of State Police officials, members of the SS, cleaners, and an executor began the operation. The Jews were searched and their last valuables were confiscated. They had to endure bureaucratic procedures and undergo the final stages of expropriation. Their declarations of property were collected and they were informed that because they were “enemies of the Reich” their assets had been seized. In order to hide the deportation from public view they were taken in closed removal vans – paid by the Jewish community - to Finkenstrasse station in the early afternoon.
  
  On the same day “pick-up unit II” took other bed-ridden Jews from the city in removal vans, organized by the Jewish community, to the old-age home at Knauerstrasse 27. Several policemen under the command of Kriminalkommissar (Detective superintendent) Kainz sealed their apartments.
  
  “Pick-up unit III” cleared the building at Johannisstrasse 17 led by Criminal Secretary Klenk together with a team of State Police officials, criminal police officers, SS members, and cleaners. At 10:00 the Jews were physically searched and bureaucratic procedures were carried out. A municipal bailiff informed them that their assets were to be confiscated and citizenship rescinded. Jewish marshals guarded rooms and hallways. Senior Criminal Assistant Unger supervised the transport of the Jews to the station. From Johannisstrasse they were taken to Finkenstrasse station at 15:30 by bus or streetcar, guarded by SS and security police (Sipo).
  
  On September 10 at 05:00, the Jews were physically searched and the bureaucratic procedures (confiscation of property, deprivation of citizenship) were carried out under the command of Senior Criminal Assistant Schneiderbanger together with a team of officials, SS members, cleaners, and one bailiff. From Knauerstrasse the deportees were taken to Finkenstrasse at 13:00 in closed removal vans paid by the Jewish community, where they were immediately put onto the train. Criminal Secretary Fichtner supervised the entire procedure together with four SS who were especially instructed to take care of any smuggled foreign currency.
  
  As Theresienstadt was located in the Protectorate and not in a foreign country, the deportees’ assets were not automatically forfeit to the Reich, as were those that belonged to Jews who were sent to the east. The assets had to be confiscated under the ruse that they were being taken from “enemies of the State”. It was the task of Helmut Rudersdorf to issue and sign for every individual confiscation order, deliver them to the deportees via a bailiff, and report to the State Police offices. He also supervised the sealing of Jewish apartments that had been evacuated, and handing them over to the Oberfinanzpräsident (Chief Finance President).
  
  Chief Inspector Fluhrer supervised the loading of the deportees into the cars, which took until the late morning. The SS closed off Nuremberg’s feces loading station at 13:00. The infirm were taken into freight cars whose floors were covered with mattresses provided by the Jewish community. The SS joined the transport until the cars holding Jews from Bamberg and Würzburg were connected to the transport. Then they returned to the Gestapo office and reported to Detective Superintendent Kainz.
  
  THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE TRANSPORT IN FÜRTH
  
  On August 4, 1942 the head of Verwaltungsstelle Fürth (the local office of the Reichsvereinigung - Reich Association of Jews in Germany) received notification from the Gestapo that at the end of August or at the beginning of September all Jews in Fürth over the age of 65 years were scheduled for deportation to Theresienstadt.
  
  The Jewish community organised helpers who made bags and pouches, and helped the deportees with packing, filling in forms and handling deportation procedures. The local office of the Reich Association had to contact everyone who was scheduled for deportation with assets of more than 1,000 Reich marks to prepare “retirement home contracts”, which made the deportees believe that with their last remaining assets they were buying a place in a home for the elderly in Theresienstadt.
  
  Forty nine such contracts were signed by Jews in Fürth and more than 900,000 Reich marks were transferred to the accounts of the Reichsvereinigung. An additional 37,300 Reich marks were transferred into special account “W” for financing the transport. A similar procedure took place in Nuremberg. The deportation and transportation costs of the Jews from Fürth amounted to 13.353,31 Reich marks, which was paid by the deportees into account “W” at the Bayerische Staatsbank, Fürth.
  
  The apartments of the deportees from Fürth had to be cleared prior to the transport on August 31, 1942 to provide space for the victims of the air raid that took place on the night of August 27 on Nuremberg. The Jewish community organized a pick-up service and 130 persons were taken to the old-age home in Julienstrasse 2 (today Hallemannstrasse). For ten days, the deportees had to remain there in crowded conditions, supervised by the Gestapo and SS guards. The luggage and the Jews were examined in the synagogue. On September 9, the infirm from Fürth were taken in two removal vans to the old age home in Nuremberg’s Knauerstrasse where staff from the Jewish community’s hospital took care of them. During that short journey, a nurse from the hospital in Fürth was also present.
  
  On September 10, 159 Jews from Fürth and six from surrounding small towns and villages were deported. Among the deportees from Fürth were five employees of the Israelite hospital, two current members of the local administrative office and two retirees of the Reichsvereinigung. They were transported by bus issued by the Nuremberg-Fürth streetcar service directly to the train that departed from Finkenstrasse station. The deportees were taken to the cars, and the helpers gave them their hand luggage. They were allowed to take food for eight days, granted by the Municipal Food Agency. There were seven survivors among the 159 Jews from Fürth.
  
  Eleven patients from the Jewish hospital who were unfit for transport, among them five Jews from Fürth together with the head of the hospital and part of the medical staff, stayed behind. The Israelite hospital continued its work, although there were nearly no patients left following the deportation.
  
  After the deportation the Jewish old-age home on Julienstrasse was closed. On October 1, 1942, he Gestapo and the Municipal Housing Office allowed a new residential home to be established on the same site.
  
  THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE TRANSPORT IN WÜRZBURG
  
  In order to deport the Jews from Würzburg, a special commission consisting of 21 SS members was formed. They received a special food supply for to enable them to work for two straight days and one night. On board the transport were 177 elderly Jews and a few children. 77 came from Würzburg; 68 had lived in the old-age homes at Konradstrasse 3, Bibrastrasse 6 and Dürerstrasse 20. 42 were from Aschaffenburg, 2 from Bibergau, 2 from Bütthard and 54 from Schweinfurt. 32 deportees were listed as infirm and 24 had to be transported lying down.
  
  A few days before the deportation, the Jews were assembled at Platz’scher Garten, a large events venue. A municipal bailiff informed them that their assets were to be confiscated and their citizenship rescinded. On September 8, the head of transport and head of the evacuation office, handed over the declarations of assets to Detective Inspector Völkl.
  
  At 8:00 the same day the officers received their instructions from their Gestapo superiors in the great hall of the Platz’scher Garten and the deportees’ luggage was searched. On the following day 54 Jews from Schweinfurt and 46 Jews from Aschaffenburg and its surroundings arrived at Wuerzburg central station at 07:20 and 12:56 respectively, and were taken to Platz’scher Garten. In their native towns the mayors together with the police were in charge of collecting them and taking them to the station. The luggage belonging to the Jews from Aschaffenburg and Schweinfurt had already been sent on to Würzburg on September 7.
  
  The deportees were physically searched and the final bureaucratic procedures were carried out. Following an order issued by the RSHA, they received a food rations for the two-day journey and rations for an eight-day stay in the ghetto.
  
  On September 10, escorted by one Polizeimeister and six officers, they had to walk about two kilometres via Martin-Luther-Strasse, pass the main cemetery and Berliner Platz to Schweinfurter Strasse, and onwards to Aumühle freight train station in Grombühl. There, four railway cars with 200 seats and one freight car awaited them. The train left Würzburg at 11:13 and arrived in Nuremberg at 16:04.
  
  THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE TRANSPORT IN BAMBERG
  
  On August 18, 1942, the remaining Jews in Bamberg received a letter from the Jewish community informing them of their impending deportation to Theresienstadt that was scheduled to take place in the first week of September. They were requested to transfer 60 Reich marks to a special bank account, “W”, and it was promised that they would receive 50 marks in Theresienstadt. To the same account they had to transfer 25% of their financial assets to finance their deportation and furthermore, if over 1,000 Reich marks were left, they were asked to sign up for a “retirement home contract”, which made them believe that with their last remaining assets they were buying a place in a home for the elderly in Theresienstadt. The notification also included further information about allowed luggage.
  
  In Bamberg many Jews were collected at a building, called “Weisse Taube”, a former inn that was bought by the local community in 1935 and served as the seat of the Jewish community which maintained offices and a youth home on the site. In 1939 it became a “Jew House”. The others continued to live in their private apartments until they were picked up by the police and taken to Weisse Taube where they were searched and their last valuables were confiscated. The deportees had to endure bureaucratic procedures and undergo the last steps of expropriation. Their declarations of property were collected and they were informed that because they were “enemies of the Reich” their assets were confiscated.
  
  Sixty eight persons from the Bamberg area were taken to Theresienstadt via Nuremberg. Fifty four lived in Bamberg itself. They were the elderly of Bamberg’s Jewish community. The youngest was 46 and the oldest was 89 years old. Three passenger cars were ordered from the Reichsbahn to arrive on September 9 at 16:35 in Bamberg. The Jews left Bamberg in a car attached to a scheduled passenger train on September 10 at 13:10 and arrived in Nuremberg at 15:39.
  
  The deportees on board numbered a total of 1,000 persons, among them 533 elderly Jews from Nuremberg, 159 Jews from Fürth, 68 from Bamberg and 177 from Würzburg. The last Jews from Coburg were also on that transport, rounding out the figure. The oldest person on that transport was 94 years old. The youngest was a baby, Berl Baumann who was less five months old and the last Jewish child born in Fürth. His parents wanted to emigrate to the US, but were not permitted to do so. In October 1944 he and his parents were taken from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz where they were murdered.
  
  This transport with 20 passenger cars and six freight cars departed Nuremberg’s faeces loading station located at Finkenstrasse 33 at 18:14 on September 10, 1942 and arrived a day later in Theresienstadt. The train travelled via Lauf, Bayreuth, and Hof to Bohusovice. The Jewish community had to take care of lunch and provisions for the entire journey. The deportees were taken off the train at Bohusovice station and forced by the awaiting SS personnel and Czech gendarmerie to walk the approximate 3 km to Theresienstadt, carrying their backpacks. Only people who were unable to walk were taken in trucks.
  
  The transport was given the reference II/25 in the Theresienstadt ghetto listings where the Roman numeral II refers to Munich and Bavaria. In Theresienstadt many of the elderly Jewish deportees who had arrived on these transports died of hunger and disease during the following months. Others were transferred later to extermination camps in the east where they were murdered. According to historian Alfred Gottwaldt, there were 51 survivors.
  
  This is a testimony by Adolf Krämer, one of the 533 deportees from Nuremberg:
  
  “Like everything else they did with the evil intention to destroy, the deportation of 533 mostly elderly and handicapped people was organised well, accompanied by the hotting of joy from youths standing nearby. One has to bear in mind that a large percentage of the men was over 75 years of age, and one woman was 94 years old. Try to imagine what the conditions were like for these people who knew where this trip was going take them. The transport from Bamberg was attached to the other cars at one of the suburban stations and the car with passengers from Fürth were attached at Nuremberg Finkenstrasse station. The entire transport Nuremberg-Fürth-Bamberg contained about 1,000 persons.
  
  The journey proceeded relatively smoothly. The train was accompanied by a command of the Schutzpolizei, whose commander was called Adolf Rosenthal, the Jewish head of transport, who already after 6 weeks stay in Theresienstadt succumbed to pneumonia. He told us in harsh terms that opening the doors or leaving the train is forbidden under penalty of death, and that in case of a violation of this policy, the guard detail had orders to shoot without any prior warning. Indeed, the guard detail patrolled along the cars with shouldered rifles loaded with live ammunition when the train stopped in between and at stations.
  
  Upon arrival, the name Theresienstadt had been indelibly inscribed in our minds. A few kilometres before the unloading station at Bauschowitz (at that time the connecting railway from Bauschowitz to Theresienstadt had not yet been built) we saw half-naked, emaciated figures, dressed only in work trousers and decorated with the Star of David. We watched as they carried out maintenance work on the railway tracks supervised by the SS. Our fears were realized. We had a preview of what lay ahead as the camp commander, Hauptsturmführer Dr. Seidel, shouted, cursed and insulted us during the 2 ½ km long march to the actual camp. Only the infirm and old were taken by truck. Yet, the reality of this first experience was hell compared to what we had envisioned before. On that haunting day - September 11, 1942 – also the day that marked the Jewish New Year– two other transports from Berlin und Vienna arrived each with 1,000 people. In total 3,000 people had to be registered and accommodated in the already overcrowded camp. Just like every other transport, ours was designated with a registration number. All transports from Bavaria were marked II. Ours, which was the 25th transport from Bavaria, received II/25, and listed the personal number of every individual. This number was not only printed on our clothes and linen, it also was engraved in our hearts and souls for the rest of our lives.”

• Zij is overleden op 17 februari 1943 in Terezín, Tsjecho-Slowakije, zij was toen 62 jaar oud.Bron 2

  Theresienstadt.

• Een kind van Menachem Mendel Emmanuel Frankfurter en Bertha Stern

Gezin van Recha Frankfurter

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