The first transports of European Jews in the history of the holocaust
The first transports of European Jews in the history of the holocaust

Author(s): Jan Dvořák, Jan Horník, Adam Hradilek
Subject(s): Studies in violence and power, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Fascism, Nazism and WW II, History of the Holocaust
Published by: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů
Keywords: Czechoslovakia; Europe; Jews; Holocaust; Ostrava; Nisko Plan; nazi prison camps; soviet prison camps; NKVD documents; Erich Egger; Karel Egger; deportation;
Summary/Abstract: The 18th of October 2014 marked the 75th anniversary of the departure of the very first transport of European Jews in the history of the holocaust – one that left Ostrava for Nisko upon San in the eastern part of the General Government where the Nazis planned to set up an extensive “reservation” for Jews displaced from the conquered territories and the whole of Germany. As part of the Nisko Plan , a total of seven transports with more than five thousand Jews departed from Ostrava, Katowice and Vienna in the latter half of October 1939. Their journey materialised even though, by the time of departure of the first transport, the top Nazi officials had dismissed the entire plan of establishing a Jewish reservation between the Rivers Vistula and Bug. The ensuing destinies of thousands of Jewish deportees varied; however, most of them were to die or suffer in Nazi as well as in Soviet prisons and camps.

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