The Third Deportation of Jews from Würzburg to the East: 25 April 1942

The Würzburg Gestapo ordered some 800 Jews from 19 different sub-districts and three different counties (a total of 80 different communities) to present themselves in Platz’schen-Garten, for the purpose of "evacuation". On the 25th of April, 78 Jews from Würzburg were ordered to present themselves as well. At about 3:00 PM the deportation train left Würzburg, carrying 852 Jews. The train stopped at Bamberg to collect 103 Jews from the area, among them Jews from Nuremberg and Fürth, who had not been deported in the previous transport on the 23rd of March. On April the 28th the deportees reached Krasnystaw in the Lublin district of Poland.

Würzburg, 25 April 1942. Jews concentrated in Platz’schen-Garten, prior to deportation to the Lublin district.

Courtesy of the State Archives in Würzburg (Staatsarchiv Würzburg)

22 to 25 April 1942: Rosa Klein and her eldest daughter Hanna, age fifteen months, in Platz'schen Garten, where the Jews were concentrated before their deportation.

A mocking caption in German appears under the photograph, reading: “The most beautiful of all the beauties of the chosen people”. Rosa Klein (née Kremer) was born in 1904 in the small town of Poppenlauer. Her daughter Hanna was born in January 1941, in Theilheim in the Schweinfurt district, which had housed a Jewish community from the early 16th century. In 1933 Theilheim had 70 Jews, who amounted to 12.9% of the population.

Yad Vashem Photo Archives 7900/97
Courtesy of the State Archives in Würzburg (Staatsarchiv Würzburg)

22 to 25 April 1942, Dr. Sally Meyer performing an emergency operation in Platz'schen Garten, where the Jews were concentrated before their deportation from Würzburg.

Yad Vashem Photo Archives 7900/104
Courtesy of the State Archives in Würzburg (Staatsarchiv Würzburg)

25 April 1942, Jews being marched through the streets of Würzburg to the train station, en route to their deportation.

Yad Vashem Photo Archives 7900/53
Courtesy of the State Archives in Würzburg (Staatsarchiv Würzburg)

25 April 1942, Jews at the Würzburg train station before boarding the deportation train

Yad Vashem Photo Archives 7900/116
Courtesy of the State Archives in Würzburg (Staatsarchiv Würzburg)

22 to 25 April 1942: Walter Fechenbach, 15 years old, part of a work group of Jews who helped carry the deportees luggage. Fechenbach was deported from Würzburg to Theresienstadt on 23rd September 1942, and was one of the few who survived.

Yad Vashem Photo Archives 7900/102
Courtesy of the State Archives in Würzburg (Staatsarchiv Würzburg)