Hildesheim
March 27

The Gestapo used the DA6 “Koppelzug” (a train to which various cars were coupled) to deport approximately 1,000 people from the state police districts of Münster, Hanover, and Brunswick to the Warsaw ghetto, including 241 Jews from the administrative district of Hildesheim. The Hildesheim Jews were taken from their homes to the local “Gendarmerieschule” (a training center for country policemen) on March 26, 1942. They had to spend the night there after undergoing a body and a luggage search, during which they were stripped of their last valuables. On March 27, they were transported, on special trains of tram line eleven, from the nearby tram depot to the assembly camp at the Ahlem horticultural school, where they joined other deportees from the Hanover district. On March 31, they were taken to Fischerhof station by truck. Shortly after midnight, the train left for Warsaw via Brunswick. Upon arriving on April 2, the deportees were put under quarantine outside the ghetto before being assigned quarters within it. It is very probable that most Jews were murdered at the nearby Treblinka extermination camp during the summer of 1942. No survivors are known.

Fourteen pictures document the deportation of the inhabitants of Hildesheim and the surrounding area, who were persecuted because they were Jews. Four of them were taken on the grounds of the Hildesheim “Gendarmerieschule”, where the deportees were registered, searched, and stripped of their belongings. The remaining ten pictures were taken at the tram depot near the main train station before the Jews were taken to Ahlem near Hanover. The probably historical prints contain damage, such as ink stains, and a sequence on their backs which is not chronological, though. The original sequence of the pictures cannot be reconstructed.

The picture series was anonymously deposited at the Hildesheim Stadtarchiv (municipal archives) on March 3, 2003. Consequently, neither the photographer nor the provenance history of the photographs is known. As the photos were taken from a central position and the photographer had access to the interior rooms of the assembly camp, it can be assumed that they were shot by a perpetrator or on behalf of, or with the knowledge of, the authorities involved.

On March 26, 1942, Erwin Kamberger, a municipal inspector, additionally filmed the arrival of the Jews at the assembly camp. The approximately one-minute-long sequence has also been preserved in the Hildesheim Stadtarchiv.

We thank Mrs. Buhrmester-Rischmüller and Mrs. Gaßmann from the Stadtarchiv for their obliging and kind cooperation. Special thanks go to Mrs. Buchholz for pointing out the photos.