Deportations from the Gestapo areas of Hamburg and Bremen (1940-1945)

Scope and content

Contains:
This unit contains lists of deportations of Jews (I) and Sinti and Roma (II) from the Gestapo area of Hamburg (and occasionally: Bremen) to ghettos and camps in the occupied eastern territories and to CC Auschwitz in the years 1940-1945. The lists were compiled by the Hamburg Gestapo or, in the postwar period, by associations and organizations, often based on Gestapo files. At the end of the unit are registration cards and lists of Jewish residents of Hamburg and Lübeck.

I) The main part of this unit (14 subunits) documents the deportations of the Jewish population of Hamburg and surrounding cities to the Theresienstadt, Litzmannstadt, Riga, and Minsk ghettos, as well as to CC Auschwitz. In addition to lists of names, there are also accompanying letters, among other things, which the Hamburg Gestapo usually sent to the residents' registration office in Hamburg shortly before a deportation (sometimes even a few days later). The latter contain brief explanations of the abbreviations used on the lists, as well as information on how the personal documents of the persons concerned were handled on the day of deportation. In the archival structure, a cover letter precedes each list.
Usually the following information about the affected persons can be found:
- Name, first name
- Date and place of birth
- Profession
- Apartment
- Nationality

Before each major deportation from the city, there are said to have been between 20 and 30 suicides. Occasionally, there are lists with information about the persons concerned. In some cases, death dates after the deportation were added to the documents.

a) Deportations to Lodz, Minsk and Riga, 1941/10/25 – 1941/12/06 (Ref. Code: 8228000 - 8228003)
Between late October and early December 1941, four large deportation trains left Hamburg for Lodz, Minsk, and Riga. The corresponding lists can be found in the subunits. The second deportation train from Hamburg to Minsk included 408 Hamburg Jews as well as 570 deportees (255 men and 315 women) from the catchment area of the Gestapostelle Bremen. They arrived at the Hannoverschen Bahnhof in the morning, where they were attached to the waiting train.

b) Deportation to CC Auschwitz, 1942/07/11 (Ref. Code: 8228004)
On July 11, 1942, the first of a total of three deportation trains in 1942 left Hamburg and went to CC Auschwitz. On its way to the occupied eastern territories, the transport was presumably combined with other deportations that had left various cities from the Reich territory in the days before. From the list that was compiled for "Transport 17" from Berlin on July 11, 1942, it can be seen that it was also joined together with the deportation train from Hamburg (see Ref. Code: 15510013 in the inventory VCC 155.I, "Wave 20").

c) Deportations to Theresienstadt (1942-1945) (Ref. Code: 8228004-8228009)
After the first two deportations from Hamburg to Theresienstadt on July 15 and 19, 1942, only old and sick Jews and Jews protected by a so-called "mixed marriage" remained in the city.
The deportation trains sent from Hamburg to Theresienstadt between July 1942 and early 1945 are marked in the ghetto's books with the Roman numeral VI and a consecutive number. While the Roman numeral stood for the place of departure, the number marked the number of the transport from Hamburg.
The sub-units contain lists of deportations VI/1, VI/2; VI/5; VI/6; VI/8.

d) Deportations to Theresienstadt and the occupied eastern territories: Supplementary lists and duplications (Ref. Code: 50600; 8228200; 3835000)
The ITS has received lists in original, copy or as transcripts or post-war lists at different times and from different institutions.
In total, the following documents can be found in subunits 50600; 8228200; 3835000:
• Doublings: The lists are not always identical with the documents from 8228004-8228009, but in some cases contain supplementary, handwritten information on the deportees (including death dates).
• Lists and accompanying letters of the Hamburg Gestapo (copies) on further deportations (especially to Theresienstadt), which are not documented in the preceding units. Among them are also lists of so-called single transports (see 50600). A "single transport" (“Einzeltransport”, abbreviated to "Ez") contained a small number of persons, often Jews from so-called "mixed marriages" that had been cancelled because the non-Jewish spouse had died or had filed for divorce. As a rule, these deportations were carried out with scheduled passenger trains.
Subunit 506000 contains lists of names drawn up in the postwar period based on the so-called Abgangslisten ("departure lists") of the Hamburg Gestapo for the period 1942-1945 (Transport VI/1-VI/10). The contents correspond accordingly with the subunits 8228005-8228009. Furthermore, they document further deportations to Theresienstadt or supplement existing lists in 8228005-8228009 (cf. Copy of the last pages of the list for "Transport VI/1" missing in 8228005, Doc ID 11197551-11197554; copy of a list of names of persons (2 sheets) who had previously been transported from Kiel to Hamburg, where their train was attached to deportation train VI/2, which left the city on July 19, 1942 (see Doc ID 11197606-11197607). Subunit 8228006 does not contain this list.

II) Subunits 8228010, 1661000, 3609000, and 3834000 contain all documents on the deportations of Sinti and Roma from Hamburg: In three transports (20 May 1940 to the Generalgouvernement; 11 March 1943 and 18 April 1944 to CC Auschwitz), Sinti and Roma were deported from the Hannoversche Bahnhof. In addition to lists of names of those affected by the deportations mentioned above, there is also a copy of the so-called Gypsy File of the Hamburg Criminal Investigation Department (Kriminalinspektion Hamburg) (cf. 1661000, 60 pp.). In addition to various lists (on Sinti and Roma, among others, who were deported to various concentration camps, including CC Ravensbrück, Sachsenhausen, Neuengamme), there are two detailed reports on questions of compensation for imprisonment from 1950/1951. Unit 3834000 contains undated excerpts from so-called Abwesenheits- und Pflegschaftsakten (“Absence and care files”) (based, among other things, on information from the Hamburg Criminal Investigation Department), an undated list of names titled "Gypsy Restitution Claims", and a copy of a "List of the Hamburg District Court - Departments 110/116 of 26 June 1940 - the judicial officers appointed for absent Gypsies". In addition to name, address and "caretakers", there are file numbers and other remarks.