Deportations from the Gestapo area Berlin

Scope and content

Contains:
I) Most of this unit documents, in the form of lists and correspondence, the deportations of Jews from Berlin in the period between October 18, 1941 and March 27, 1945. As a rule, each deportation is accompanied by the so-called transport lists prepared by the Berlin Stapoleitstelle from 1942 onward, as well as by the accompanying letters to the Vermögensverwertungsstelle at the Oberfinanzpräsidenten Berlin-Brandenburg (only in one case there is additional correspondence from the Stapoleitstelle Potsdam, see Doc ID 127213223-127213225). Occasionally, directories of persons who committed suicide before their deportation are also included.

With few exceptions, waves 1 to 68 are documented. Particularly with regard to the first 7 deportations (all in 1941), the records are fragmentary: Only incomplete copies of the "transport lists" for the first, third, and fourth so-called Osttransport (“Transport to the East”) to the Litzmannstadt ghetto (Lodz) have survived. They are found in the inventory as reproductions. With regard to the 3rd and 4th “Transport to the East”, the cover sheet of the respective Gestapo files (Wave 3 and 4) has been handed down in the original in addition to the reproductions. Furthermore, the original correspondence between the Vermögensverwertungsstelle and the Berlin Gestapo from 1943 regarding the 4th “Transport to the East” is included.
Not contained are the lists for the 2nd “Transport to the East” to Lodz (Oct. 24, 1941) (here only the cover page of the Gestapo file is found in the original), the 5th “Transport to the East” to Minsk (Nov 14, 1941), the 6th “Transport to the East” to Kowno (Nov. 17, 1941) and the 7th “Transport to the East” to Riga (Nov. 27, 1941).

II) Directory (so-called Sonderaktion gegen Juden) and correspondence on 154 male Jews who were arrested after the arson attack on a Nazi propaganda exhibition on 27 and 28 May 1942 and deported to CC Sachsenhausen (Wave 14).

III) Letter from Stapoleitstelle Berlin to the Chief Finance President regarding the deportation of 252 Sinti and Roma (persecuted as "gypsies") to CC Auschwitz, dated 1943/05/05 (Wave 57). It deals in detail with the bureaucratic process of confiscating their assets and cash amounts. The corresponding transport list is not part of the inventory.

IV) Gestapo directories on Jews who died between 1943/07/02 and 1945/03/18 with related correspondence to the Chief Finance President concerning the confiscation of property (cf. ref. code 15510049, Doc ID 127212970-127213045).

V) The last two subunits contain (in reproduction) a so-called Abwanderungsbuch (“book of emigration") of the Bischöfliches Hilfswerk Berlin concerning Jews converted to Christianity who were deported or emigrated from Berlin between October 1938 and September 1944, as well as an alphabetical list of Jewish doctors who resided in Greater Berlin in 1937.

Explanations to I):
The Stapoleitstelle used two different names for the deportations from Berlin:
1. “Alterstransporte” (“Transports of the elderly”): All deportations to Theresienstadt were conducted as so-called Alterstransporte (Transports of the elderly), regardless of the deportees' actual age. In the course of the indexing process, efforts were made to attribute sub-units to age transports in which families with children were deported together with older Jews, also or exclusively, with the keyword “children and adolescents”. Between the 15th and 34th transports for the elderly (July 6-31, 1942; wave 19-22), five transports a week (until then, three a week), each with 100 people, were dispatched to Theresienstadt. They were deployed at Anhalter Bahnhof and attached to the regular trains to Karlsbad. The deported prisoners were mainly old people, including numerous residents of Jewish retirement homes. Beginning in early 1944, the deportation trains to Theresienstadt contained mainly Jews from “mixed marriages” that no longer existed (e.g., due to the death of the spouse or divorce) (see Transports of the elderly 99-101; 50. Transport to the East). Based on an order issued by the Reich Security Main Office in January 1945, the Stapoleitstelle deported persons who were still living in existing “mixed marriages” for the first time on February 2, 1945, along with the 116th Transport of the elderly. In addition to the transports for the elderly, which usually contained 50 or 100 persons, the Stapoleitstelle had four “large transports for the elderly”, each with about 1,000 prisoners, transported to Theresienstadt in August, September, and October 1942 and in March 1943.

2. “Osttransporte” (Transports to the East”): Deportations to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp as well as to camps and ghettos in the occupied eastern territories (including the ghettos in Lodz, Riga, Minsk, Piaski, and Warsaw, as well as the concentration and extermination camps Majdanek and Sobibor, among others) were called “Transports to the East”.
After the 22nd Transport to the East (to Riga on October 26, 1942, wave 35), all Transports to the East from the Reich were directed to Auschwitz-Birkenau starting November 29, 1942. From then on, the assembly camp in Große Hamburger Strasse in Berlin served as the starting point. The last Transports to the East departing from Berlin between late November 1944 and early January 1945 were an exception with regard to the geographical location of the deportation destination: Due to the advancing Red Army, it cannot be said with certainty whether the 59th Transport to the East actually went to the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz as planned (or was diverted at short notice to CC Sachsenhausen). It is considered certain that the victims of the 60th and 61st Transport to the East were deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. From there, the female prisoners were deported further to the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

The Stapoleitstelle assigned a consecutive number to each deportation train (so-called transport), counting separately the 117 Transports of the elderly, the 4 so-called large Transports of the elderly and the 63 Transports to the East. The lists include the following information about the deportees:
- full name
- address
- age
- ID card number
- identification number assigned to each listed person in the run-up to deportation, also known as the “Transportnummer” at the time.

The comments field contains various references, including information on so-called declarations of assets; family relationships of the persons concerned; and possible activities in the Jewish Community / Jewish Religious Association (abbreviated as JKV). In some cases, designations such as Krankenbehandler (NS terminology for a Jewish doctor) were noted. It is also listed if the person in question was a war veteran with honors (Jewish combatants of World War I with the wounded badge or the Iron Cross I. class were scheduled for deportation to Theresienstadt according to RSHA guidelines). Furthermore, there are racist terms of the NS-ideology such as "Geltungsjude", "Mischling", and "Mischehe".
As a rule, the deportees were Jews from Berlin with (former) German citizenship. In some cases, those affected from various places in Brandenburg or cities such as Leipzig, Hamburg, Tilsit, and Erfurt were first transported to Berlin to be deported from there. In some cases, their names are not on the transport list (see 4. Transport of the Elderly).

In some cases Jews with foreign citizenship are mentioned who were deported from Berlin. Their names were highlighted in the sources by the Stapoleitstelle, but not uniformly: In addition to the mention in the correspondence, there are also handwritten notes on the transport lists. On the lists dated 2 February 1945 concerning the 116th Transport of the elderly and the 62nd Transport to the East (wave 68), foreign Jews were marked with blue ticks (see Doc ID 127213279). However, the same markings may have a completely different meaning on earlier lists.