| Press Room | Online Store | Friends | Contact Us

Yad Vashem The Story of the Jewish Community in Würzburg

Würzburg During the Holocaust

25 April 1942 – The Third Deportation from Würzburg to the East

  • Würzburg, 25 April 1942. Jews concentrated in Platz’schen-Garten, prior to deportation to the Lublin district.
  • Würzburg, 25 April 1942. Jews concentrated in Platz’schen-Garten, prior to deportation to the Lublin district.
  • Würzburg, 25 April 1942. Jews concentrated in Platz’schen-Garten, prior to deportation to the Lublin district.
  • Würzburg, 25 April 1942. Jews concentrated in Platz’schen-Garten, prior to deportation to the Lublin district.
  • Würzburg, 25 April 1942. Jews concentrated in Platz’schen-Garten, prior to deportation to the Lublin district.
  • Würzburg, 25 April 1942. Jews concentrated in Platz’schen-Garten, prior to deportation to the Lublin district.
  • 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.
  • 22 to 25 April 1942: Walter Fechenbach, 15 years old, part of a work group of Jews who helped carry the deportees luggage.
  • 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.
  • 25 April 1942, Jews being marched through the streets of Würzburg to the train station, en route to their deportation.
  • 25 April 1942, Jews at the Würzburg train station before boarding the deportation train

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.

About a month before the deportation, on the 26th of March 1942, Gustav Petri from Aschaffenburg wrote to the Würzburg Gestapo:

We have heard that some of the Jews will be taken from here. The three Jews Otto Strauss, Emil Israel Goldschmidt, and Siegfried Israel Solingen are working for us, and we are satisfied with their work. If we will have to part with these three Jews, we will need three other workers, which represents a problem, because many of our own workers have been drafted by the Wehrmacht.

Völkl, the officer of the Würzburg Gestapo charged with implementing the deportations, ordered on the 27th of March that this communication be filed under the heading of "Jewish Evacuation", with a note stating that the request could not be complied with. Among those deported on the 25th of April, 1942, from Würzburg were 128 Jews from Aschaffenburg.

Before boarding the transports, Jews were thoroughly searched for valuables hidden on their person or in their luggage, including weapons, foreign currency, money and jewelry. All items were carefully noted. According to documents of the German police, a total sum of 12,885 RM (Reichsmark) was confiscated from the Jews concentrated in Würzburg.

After the deportees reached Krasnystaw they were marched by foot to Krasniczin. The local Jews were murdered on the very day the Jews of Würzburg arrived. It seems that the surviving deportees were finally deported to Sobibor on the 6th of July, 1942.

This deportation of 852 Jews from Würzburg was documented by German policemen, and the photos were collected in an album for Michael Völkl, the Würzburg Gestapo officer charged with implementing the deportation.