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292 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
The initial concept for the Jewish transports was drawn up on 13
March 1942 and specified the dispatch of 10 trains to Auschwitz and
another 10 to Lublin between 25 March and 21 April 1942. Each transport
was to be made up of 1,000 persons. 885
On 24 March SS-Obersturmbannführer Arthur Liebehenschel, head
of Amt D I (Zentralamt) of SS-WVHA, sent a telex to the commander
of the PoW camp at Lublin, SS-Standartenführer Koch, on the subject
“Jews from Slovakia” in which he said: 886
“As already stated, the 10,000 (ten thousand) Jews from Slovakia
destined for the camp there [Lublin] will be moved in with special
trains as of 27 March 27 1942. Every special train carries 1,000
(one thousand) inmates. All trains will be routed via the border train
station of Zwardon (Upper Silesia), where they will each arrive at
6:09 a.m. and, over a two-hour break, will be channeled on to their
destination by Security Police escorts and under supervision by the
Kattowitz division of the State Police.”
On 27 March a certain Woltersdorf, an employee of state police office
Kattowitz, addressed to Amtsgruppe D of SS-WVHA and two other
offices a report concerning the first transport of Jews to Lublin headed
“labor deployment of 20000 Jews from Slovakia,” in which he wrote: 887
“Arrival on 27 March 1942 at 6:52 of the 2nd train in Zwardon
with 1,000 Jews from Slovakia fit for labor. A Jewish doctor was
with the transport, so that the total number is 1,001 men.”
On 29 April the German embassy at Bratislava sent a note verbale to
the Slovak government, in which we can read: 888
“The Jews from the territory of Slovakia who have been transported
and are still to be transported into the territory of the Reich
will be arriving, after preparation and retraining, for labor deployment
in the General Government and in the occupied eastern territories.
The accommodation, boarding, clothing, and retraining of the
Jews, including their relatives, will cause expenses, which for the
time being cannot be covered out of the initially only small labor
885
886
887
888
Ibid., pp. 38f.
Fernschreiben from Liebehenschel No. 903 dated 24 March 1942 to the commander of
K.G.L. Lublin. Photocopy of the document in: Zofia Leszczyska, “Transporty winów
do obózu na Majdanku,” in: Zeszyty Majdanka, IV, Lublin 1969, p. 182.
Photocopy of the document in: Stanisaw Duszak (ed.), Majdanek, Krajowa Agencja
Wydawnicza, Lublin 1985, photograph No. 38.
Riešenie židovskiej otázky na Slovensku (1939-1945). Dokumenty, 2. as, Edícia Judaica
Slovaca, Bratislava 1994, p. 105.