Category:05Feb45 Train (subject)

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StGallen Refugees.jpg
StGallen Refugees2.jpg
StGallen Refugees3.jpg

Terezin to Switzerland (The 5 Feb 1945 Train) (see Holocaust Children Studies)

  • See list of passengers on USHMM

Overview

Jean-Marie Musy, a former member of the Swiss parliament and ardent anti-Bolshevik, wrote his friend, Heinrich Himmler, in November 1944, that the Union of Orthodox Rabbis in the United States and Canada, in association with Agudat Israel, had made 20 million Swiss francs available to secure the release of Jews from Theresienstadt. Through Musy, these two Jewish organizations paid Himmler five million francs to release 1200 German, Austrian, Czech, and Dutch Jewish prisoners from the camp. Musy's motives remain unclear, but they probably had more to do with the promotion of anti-Bolshevik friends in Germany than with humanitarian concern

In 1945, hoping to use the surviving prisoners at Theresienstadt as a bargaining chip for opening negotiations with the western powers, SS chief Heinrich Himmler, Security Police Chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and other SS leaders agreed, as a token of good faith, to the release of 1,200 Theresienstadt prisoners in exchange for five million Swiss francs put up by Jewish organizations in an escrowed account in Switzerland. The 1,200 Jews (523 German Jews, 433 Dutch Jews, 153 Austrian Jews, and 91 Protectorate Jews) reached Switzerland on February 5, 1945.

The prisoner release from Theresienstadt began on February 4, 1945. The majority of the released prisoners were elderly men and women between the ages of 60 and 80, some of whom had been in Theresienstadt for as long as three years. There were, however, 58 children under the age of 12 who were also included in the evacuation transport. The released Jewish prisoners arrived in St. Fiden, Switzerland in two special trains on February 7, 1945. (Another train carrying 540 French Jews from Theresienstadt arrived two weeks later). From St. Fiden 200 of the evacuees were sent to Buehler, and 1000 to nearby St. Gallen to recuperate for several days before being sent on in smaller groups to other parts of the country. In St. Gallen the large Hadwigschulhaus [school], which was requisitioned by the municipality, served as a refugee center from February through May 1945. The center was administered by the Swiss Red Cross with the help of local army reservists and the gendarmerie. Together they offered the refugees food, clothing, shelter and basic medical care.

The St. Gallen series of photographs was taken by Walter Scheiwiller, who trained as an apprentice at the Photohaus Zumbuehl in St. Gallen from 1939-1942. Upon completion of his apprenticeship, he worked in the town as a reporter for Fotopress-Zuerich. On February 11, 1945 he was directed by the Fotopress to record the arrival of the Theresienstadt transport and the subsequent care of the rescued Jews by the citizens of St. Gallen.

The Children

Among the 1200 passengers were around 130 children.

  • See USHMM List of Refugees arrived in St. Gallen in February 1945 from Theresienstadt
  • See USHMM List of 1200 persons who arrived from Theresienstadt

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  • ? [[Desco Davodewitz (M / Slovakia, 1928) - 15 Jun 1928 - Felsöviso
  • Saul Denekamp (M / Netherlands, 1939), Holocaust survivor]] - 15 Feb 1939
  • Jaap Denekamp (M / Netherlands, 1940), Holocaust survivor]] - 9 Apr 1940
  • Alfred Drielsma (M / Netherlands, 1938), Holocaust survivor]] - 27 Apr 1938 (The Hague) - d. 18 Feb 2015
  • Lisette Drielsma (F / Netherlands, 1942), Holocaust survivor]] - 24 Apr 1942

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  • Anna Liesl Erb (F / Germany, 1933), Holocaust survivor]] - 17 Jun 1933

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External links

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