Deportations to the "Reichskommissariat Ostland" in 1941/42
Maly Trostinec
After the first phase of deportations from the "Reich" and "Protectorate" to Minsk had been concluded in November 1941, 16 trains with more than 15,000 people from Vienna, Königsberg, Theresienstadt and Cologne arrived in Minsk between May and October 1942. Following an order by Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Security Police and SD, the deportees were killed as they arrived in a pine forest a few kilometres from Maly Trostinec, a former collective farm.
The executions themselves followed a pattern and relied on the participation of 80 to 100 men, including members of the Schutzpolizei and the Waffen-SS. After arrival of the trains at the freight station in Minsk generally between 4 and 7 a.m., a detachment from the KdS office disembarked the newly arrived persons and their luggage. The people were then herded to a nearby place of assembly where another detachment from the KdS office relieved the Jews of their money and valuables. At this place of assembly KdS members selected those very few - between 20 and 50 people per transport - whom they deemed suitable for forced labour on Trostinec estate. Finally the deportees were driven on lorries from a loading point at the edge of the place to the trenches which were situated about 18 km away. This process remained unchanged for the first 8 transports. From August 1942 onwards the trains were routed via a branch line much closer to the estate itself, and from now on it was there that disembarkation and selection took place.
After the first transport from Vienna to Maly Trostinec on May 6, 1942, a further 8 transports containing 7,500 Viennese Jews followed, along with several hundred Austrians taken there from Theresienstadt.
Only 17 people are known to have survived among the almost 9,000 Austrian Jews deported to Maly Trostinec.
Hildegard (born on June 10, 1892) and Rudolf (born on June 16, 1878) Bergmann were deported
to Maly Trostinec on May 20, 1942.
The writer Alma Johanna Koenig (born on August 18, 1887) was deported to Maly Trostinec on May 27, 1942.
The writer Alma Johanna Koenig (born on August 18, 1887) was deported to Maly Trostinec on May 27, 1942.
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