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[Page 88]
The Children's Transport
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| Rabbi Itzhak Eisik Halevi Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Mandate Palestine |
On Friday afternoon, August 23, 1946, the telephone at the JDC in Prague rang. Rabbi Itzhak Eisik Halevi Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Palestine was on the phone pleading for help. The rabbi had decided to leave the UNRRA train that was heading to Prague and then to Paris, France at Moravska–Ostrava. The Sabbath was approaching and he did not want to commit a serious religious sin by traveling on the Sabbath. Originally the train was supposed to be in Prague on this Friday but due to a multitude of delays the train barely entered Czechoslovakia on Friday morning, still a long way from Prague. Rabbi Herzog worked very hard to get all the necessary
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| This is the plan prepared by UNRRA to transport the children out of Poland. | ||||
papers and permits to remove a large number of Polish Jewish orphans and yeshiva students from Poland to Palestine. The concept and the planning of the project took every moment of Rabbi Herzog's time and a good part of his help. Constant changes, orders and counter orders were the order of the day. Rabbi Herzog negotiated and pleaded with the French, Belgian, Czech and Polish governments to grant the necessary papers. Slowly and steadily the project advanced. He received a great deal of help from Rabbi Wohlgelernter, Vaad Ha'hatzalah European representative attached to UNRRA. The UNRRA organization devised an entire plan of action that involved a train that would take the children out of Poland.
The plan called for the Polish railway to send a train to Paris to bring back to Poland disabled Polish soldiers in France in accordance with the UNRRA policy of returning refugees back home. The Polish Red Cross assumed full responsibility for the medical aspects of the train transport. The UNRRA's plan was to use the Polish train being sent empty to Paris to transport the children Rabbi Herzog wanted brought out of Poland. The train was to stop in Prague, where the children would get off and be brought to the Deblice transit camp. The children were to wait in Deblice until the renovations on the orphanages in France and Belgium were completed, approximately six weeks, and then travel to France and Belgium using the French and Belgian visas Rabbi Herzog had obtained. On August 19, 1946 UNRRA Prague sent a telegram to UNRRA Warsaw that the train would be available in Lodz on August 21, 1946. And it was.
The long train, consisting of 44 cars, both with compartments holding eight people, and with regular passenger seats set up in rows, began loading children in Lodz, Poland[1]. The train was to proceed to Katowice, near the Czech/Polish border, where the majority of the children who had been assembled from the different orphanages, would board. After all the passengers had boarded, the train would proceed to Prague, Czechoslovakia where it was scheduled to arrive on Friday, August 23, 1946. An UNRRA manifest for what was termed “Plan 750” listed 750 passengers – the Jewish orphans plus escorts. This was the number of children and escorts Rabbi Herzog expected to board the train. Originally permission had been granted for 1,250 passengers. But because of the logistical difficulties, the number was winnowed down to 750. “Plan750” was quite detailed and seemed at first glance to cover any and all eventualities[2].
The UNRRA document listed the leaders of the various organizations that would be on the train. Among them were Polish government officials like Wanda Siwek of the Polish Repatriation Office. Major Sokol would be in charge of security. Dr. Alfred Kalmanowicz was in charge of the medical issues. The Vaad Ha'hatzalah was represented by Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, Mrs. Rachel Sternbuch, and Rabbi Solomon Wohlgelernter.
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| UNRRA Prague notifying UNRRA Warsaw that departure would take place on Wednesday August 23, 1946 |
The JDC organization in Poland and Czechoslovakia was totally left out of the picture. But there were a few serious flaws in the plan. Because the children would have to stay in Prague for six weeks until their housing arrangements were completed in France, additional train travel arrangements would need to be made to transport the children to France. The organizers hoped that no unforeseen obstacles would arise to prevent the children moving on. Everyone was well aware of the fact that the Czech government was making an exception to the usual limited transient stay of refugees by allowing the children to stay for a six–week stretch. The other problem was that Rabbi Herzog and many of the children were strict in their observance of Orthodox Jewish tradition.
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| UNRRA Prague notifying UNRRA Warsaw that departure would take place on Wednesday August 23, 1946 |
Telephone message from UNRRA Prague that papers cleared and the transport can leave on Tuesday but must telephone to inform of train departure. Message for Rabbi Wohlgelernter, Vaad Ha'hatzalah representative with UNRRA headquarters.
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| Polish Jewish orphan boarding the children's transport |
The telephone message set in motion the entire children's transport. Rabbi Kahane's office in Warsaw sent out immediate messages to all the homes for the children to start leaving their orphanages. All children boarding the train in Lodz were told to be at the train station on Wednesday morning, August 21, 1946. The train with all the UNRRA and Polish personnel was already at the station. Security was tight around it. The children began to arrive; Captain Drucker and Rabbi Becker were there to receive them and direct them to their compartments. The train cars were divided between the Mizrahi children that included the children of the Zabrze orphanage and the Aguda children. The former were led by Moshe Einhorn, Yeshayahu Spiner and Meir Weissblum and the latter by Rachel Sternbuch, Vaad Ha'hatzalah representative in Europe. The Vaad Ha'hatzalah
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| The youngest passenger aboard the Herzog train |
Organization was organized by Orthodox rabbis in the USA to help rabbis and yeshiva students. One of the first groups to reach the train was Rachel Sternbuch surrounded by a group of yeshiva boys carrying a Torah scroll with them. They carried the scroll throughout Russia. Other children began to arrive. The commotion at the station is great; children are saying goodbye to their friends and family. The children board their assigned seats and the train starts to roll in the direction of Katowice where it arrived on Thursday morning. The train was parked at the freight terminal of Katowice to insure maximum security. The children from homes in Bytom, Krakow and Zabrze began to arrive and board the rain in Katowice.
The children exchanged greetings and stories and waited – amongst them David Danieli formerly Danelski[3]. David (Danielski) Danieli described how he received news at Zabrze that he was leaving Poland: “At the home we always talked and studied about Eretz Yisrael as the place we intended to go. Suddenly, the word spread throughout the orphanage that a sizable group of children and adults would join a big trainload of children led by Rabbi Herzog that would head to Palestine. None of us knew much about Palestine except that it was the home of the Jews. Preparations and meetings began throughout. Children packed their belongings and began to say farewell to those who were staying. The tension was beyond description. We were dressed in our best clothes and issued extra food for the journey. Each of us had one suitcase that contained everything we owned. We were marched to the nearest tram about 30 kilometers from Zabrze. We entered the freight terminal of the Katowice railway station where the Herzog train was standing. We saw many Jewish children.” Danieli's story is similar to that of many of the other Jewish orphans who boarded the train. Born David Danielski in 1932 in the town of Rybnik, in the province of Pszczyna, he was the second child of Max, a baker, and Hannah Danielski; their first son
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| David (Danielski) Danieli at the Zabrze Orphanage, 1946 |
Sasha died in 1928. David was always an independent spirit. His family was not religious but he remembers occasionally attending the town's crowded synagogue on Jewish holidays (he spent most of his time playing with other children in the courtyard). When the Germans invaded Poland, the bakery where Max Danielski worked was appropriated. An Aryan assumed control of the bakery but kept Max on as an employee. The Danielskis were forced to move from their spacious, comfortable apartment into a new one–room flat in a poor section of town that had been allotted to the Jews. To make ends meet, David's mother Hannah began to sell off her family's belongings on the street. During one of these market forays she met a willing buyer, Marta Kapitza, a Polish woman who lived across the street, and became her dealer. Marta took the Danielski items and paid Hannah in food she received when trading with farmers in the surrounding villages. One day Max was told by a friendly policeman that a Nazi anti–Jewish “Aktion” was to take place. Max hurriedly contacted a Polish farmer he knew and arranged for his son David to hide there for a short time. David remembered his mother packing a small suitcase for him and sending him alone by train to the station near the farm, where he followed her instructions to the farm. David stayed and worked on the farm until one day he was sent back to Rybnik, his hometown. His parents were gone; a neighbor took him in and he remained with that family the rest of the war.
The train remained standing in Katowice for hours awaiting the arrival of Rabbi Herzog and his entourage. They were still hammering out the agreement that would enable the transport to enter the refugee camp in Prague. At last, the director of UNRRA, Fiorello LaGuardia, granted the permit. Late Thursday evening, Rabbi Herzog headed to the Warsaw airport where he took a plane to Katowice. He boarded the children's transport and it started to roll to the Czech border.
Traveling at about 30 km per hour, the normal speed for Polish trains at the time, it was nearly midnight when the train slowed down as it approached the border. Some of the passengers on the train were stowaways who had snuck on, hoping to get out of Poland without appearing on the passenger lists. This was a tricky proposition fraught with danger. A stowaway could be arrested and imprisoned, with no hope of ever getting the necessary papers to leave Poland. As the train cruised to the Polish border station, one of the stowaways, a teacher from one of the orphanages who had inserted herself in with a group of children, lost her nerve. She must have been growing steadily more frightened with each kilometer the train covered, getting closer and closer to the border. First she moved out of the compartment where she'd been sitting with the children from her orphanage, and then in the corridor slowly made her way toward the door. The children she'd been with, who considered her their foster mother, wouldn't leave her side. When she got up, they got up, when she moved to the door, they moved to the door. She could not convince them to go back to the compartment. Until the fear was too much for her to bear. She yanked open the compartment door and leaped from the moving train. The problem was, some of the children jumped down with her[4].
Polish border guards saw the teacher and the children. The guards sprinted from their posts, surrounding the teacher and children just as the train came to a full stop. Then, once the train had stopped, more students jumped down from the train crying “This is our mother. Our mother died, and now she is our mother. You can't take her away.” But the guards did just that while the children cried in protest.
The locomotive was still churning when another unpleasant surprise sprang upon them. Polish border guards, probably because of the stowaway teacher, had boarded the train and were painstakingly checking the documents, car by car, compartment by compartment, of each and every passenger. Even though the children were traveling on group visas, the process seemed to take forever. Minders from the different orphanages had in their hands lists of their children, a body count, and the French and Belgian entry permits. Still, the border guards rifled through the papers, keeping a written tally as they moved slowly from compartment to compartment.
When the guards finished their counting, their commander showed the tally sheet to Major Sobol, the security officer of the train. The latter showed the paper to the rabbi and the UNRRA staff. There were 10 more people on the train than on the travel manifests. The original UNRRA plan for 750 children had been reduced to only 500 accompanied by 101 supervisors. But somehow there were now 111 supervisors. Until the situation was resolved the train was not permitted to clear the border[5].
The rabbi asked for a recount, the guards complied and the tally was the same. The rabbi intervened on behalf of the stowaways but the guard officer was adamant. The people had to be found and removed from the train. The behavior of the officer was a bit strange in view of the order that the Polish government gave to all border posts along the Polish Czech border to ignore the illegal Jewish refugees that were crossing the border to enter Czechoslovakia in accordance with the recently signed Spichalski–Tzuckerman agreement. According to Professor Yehuda Bauer, 33,346 Polish Jews crossed the Czech border in August 1946 on either side of the tracks. Apparently the officer did not like the rabbi or the Jewish children or both. He ordered a full search until the culprits were found. The guards searched for the stowaways until they located 10 women; one the mother of a nine–year old child from one of the orphanages, the others relatives or friends of those legally aboard the train. Screaming and crying for help from the rabbi or anyone who would listen, the women were forcibly removed from the train.
Once the stowaways were removed, the Polish guards gave the conductor permission for the train to continue across the border. Just before the train began to roll, Captain Drucker, Rabbi Becker and the Polish soldiers assigned to escort the children jumped off the train, their jobs completed. Drucker later said that one of the non–Jewish Polish soldiers assigned to escort the train told Drucker he was happy to have had the detail. The soldier admitted to Drucker he was really a Jew, not a gentile, and that his wife and five children had all been murdered by the Nazis. Drucker patted him on the shoulder and then stood near the tracks watching as the train moved beneath the border signs that marked Polish and Czech territory. Drucker waved at the children he'd brought out of the farms, monasteries and convents in the hope they would find a better life where they were going – a life better than the one they'd been handed so far.
The Czech border guards barely glanced at the children's transit visas when the Herzog train crossed the border. The train started to roll towards Prague that was still about twelve hours away. The rabbi knew that the train would never make it to the Czech capital before Sabbath. With each minute the Sabbath was approaching and the train was nowhere near Prague. How could the rabbi permit the train to travel on the Sabbath, one of the iron–clad no–no's of Orthodox Judaism?
Rabbi Herzog decided to speak to the security chief and explain the situation to him. Major Sobol listened to the rabbi and then told him that the train was already behind schedule and he could not let it stand for an extra full day with sick and disabled Poles waiting in Paris for the train to go home to Poland. The major told the rabbi that the train would take him to Prague as agreed. Otherwise, the rabbi could leave the train whenever he wanted. The major informed the rabbi that they were approaching the Czech city of Ostrava.
The rabbi decided to leave the train at the Ostrava rail station. Trusting that the Almighty would smile favorably upon his decision, the rabbi took the risk he could find shelter and food for the 600 children and staff members in a small border town like Ostrava. He instructed all aboard to gather their belongings and leave the train. He made certain the supervisors checked each compartment to make sure no one was left behind. One imagines the rabbi had serious doubts when he stepped off the train. Rabbi Herzog now not only had to find shelter for the Sabbath for his flock but he also had to figure out a way to get them to Prague once the Sabbath was over.
Ostrava, about 290 kilometers from Prague, sits along the merger of the Ostravice, Oder, Lucina and Opava rivers. A coal mining and industrial town, Ostrava was off–limits to Jews under the Hapsburg Empire, until about 1792 when a Jewish distiller arrived and opened up a business. After the Hapsburg Empire granted Jews freedom of movement in1848, more arrived. The Rothschilds opened a steel mill there in the late 1800s. By 1900 there were about 3,200 Jews in Ostrava, the third largest Czech Jewish population after Prague and Brno. About 7,000 Jews lived in Ostrava before the outbreak of WW II. The Nazis deported approximately 4,000 Jews from Ostrava to Terezin (Theresiensdadt), in Czechoslovakia, the rest to other concentration camps. Ostrava's six synagogues were burned down. The town was badly damaged during the war by Allied bombs aiming at the steel mills. After the war ended about 250 Jews returned to the town.
With nowhere to go, the transport children milled around the railroad station, their minders trying to keep them out of trouble. The rabbi's staff sent frantic cables to the UNRRA offices in Prague and Warsaw, but the offices were already closed. Mrs. Rachel Sternbuch, Vaad Ha'hatztalah representative in Europe, contacted the Vaad Ha'hatzalah office in Prague, but that too was already closed. When the Prague JDC office received an urgent call pleading for help, one of the staff contacted JDC Prague chief Jacobson. Strange as it seems, up until then, according to JDC cables, Jacobson had no knowledge about a train with children heading to Prague[6]. Surprised by the events, but accustomed to surprises in those extraordinary times, emergency measures were quickly implemented. Luckily for Rabbi Herzog and the passengers on his train, the JDC had some experience handling problems in Ostrava. We already mentioned the group of Polish Jews that were arrested in Ostrava with their Brichah leader Yohanan Cohen, although the scale of the transport dwarfed anything the Ostrava small community had ever faced. Jacobson turned to his contacts with the Ostrava Jewish community and to his influential and powerful friend Toman. Time was of the essence for the Sabbath was approaching. Things moved at a dizzy pace. The Moravska Hotel was immediately cleared of all occupants and assigned to the children. A few others were placed in different locations nearby. Food was located for the transport and preparations began to cook the food for the fast–approaching Sabbath. It seemed that the entire security force in Ostrava was placed at the transport's disposal. Only a high official had such authority and such powers to command. A man like Toman could snap his fingers in Prague and people would jump in Ostrava. However they did it, the arrangements for kosher food and housing were quickly made. By the time the Sabbath arrived the children and staff were lodged and fed. No simple deed in a small Czech town following the war. According to David Danieli, a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor aboard the children's transport, Rabbi Herzog held Sabbath services in the dining room of the hotel[7]. Following the services, whatever kosher food that could be found was brought out for the youngsters and their supervisors. Challah (braided bread) and wine was provided, probably draining the supplies of the local Jewish community
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| Shlomo Korn |
and other places in town. David Danieli recalls that in the morning, the rabbi also conducted Sabbath services. The rabbi organized an afternoon study session for the yeshiva students, reasoning that he was, after all, the Chief Rabbi of Mandatory Palestine.
Danieli said that he and many of the other children took the opportunity to explore the town, and then raucously cavort in and around the hotel. According to both Danieli and his friend Shlomo Korn, the hotel was a novelty for most of the Jewish orphans. Most had never been in a hotel nor been exposed to telephones, elevators, carpeted staircases and velvet draperies. Shlomo Korn, another passenger aboard the train, said the hotel was in a pristine condition when they arrived but not when they left[8]. Odd events transpired that Sabbath. An observer reported that during the services one of the girls stood away from the rest of the children, clutching a crucifix, while they prayed. When asked why she hadn't joined the prayers the girl explained that she'd been raised a Catholic and was still not comfortable with being Jewish.
On Sunday morning, the supervisors gathered up the children and shepherded them to the train station where a special train awaited to transport them to Prague. We have to remember that the event took place in 1946 when there were shortages of everything, especially trains. Even the JDC or the Brichah could not provide a passenger train within 24 hours ready to travel to Prague. It had to be somebody important and powerful within the government that could give the right orders and get things done. The only person that had such power was Zoltan Toman. As mentioned earlier, he was the head of the secret police and the border guards, and nobody questioned his orders.
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| The tumultuous welcome for the children's train at the central railway station in Prague |
The train ride from Ostrava to Prague was uneventful. On August 25, 1946, the Herzog children's transport train consisting of 500 children and 101 escorts entered the Prague railroad station to a tumultuous welcome organized by the Vaad Ha'hatzalah office in the town. A large banner was unfurled showing the name Vaad Ha'hatzalah. The Prague Vaad Ha'hatzalah was there as were officials were UNRRA officials and Czech officials, journalists, Jewish representatives of the Prague community and some distant relatives of the children. The rabbi addressed the crowd and thanked the Czech government for their hospitality. Some pictures were taken and then the children were taken to the buses that left for the Deblice camp. The Czech government was very sensitive to internal and external pressures and would have preferred less publicity but nobody asked them. The Joint was not invited to the reception and Toman had his men following the scene from a distance.
The 500 youngsters and the 101 escorts quickly boarded buses that took them to the camp officially called Repatriacni Tabor Deblice camp that received only a limited number of illegal Jewish refugees who crossed the Czech border on their way to Germany or Austria. The acceptance of such a large children's transport and for such a long duration was only due to Rabbi Herzog's intensive negotiations with the Czech government and UNRRA. This camp was established by the Czech government to handle the thousands of refugees who crossed Czechoslovakia on their way home. The camp was a former German military base and following WW II, the Czech government handed the camp over to the office of repatriation. This office maintained the camp but UNRRA provided the camp with the basic food and health facilities. Transports of Jewish children had occasionally arrived at the camp from Poland, Romania and Hungary. But the “Herzog Transport” was the largest children's transport that would remain in Prague for a long period of time.
We managed to locate some of the lists of the children that were admitted to the Deblice transit camp. Most of them belonged to the Mizrahi–Hapoel Hamizrahi contingent. The children of the Aguda section have not been located as yet.
Below are lists of children and adults that were admitted to the Deblice camp on August 25, 1946.
Partial list of the Herzog transport in Prague on August 25 1946
| Last name | First name | Age |
| AFTERGUT | Nathan | 15 |
| AFTERGUT | Sarah | 14 |
| AFTERGUT | Roza | 12 |
| AGRABSKA | Yanka | 13 |
| ALTMAN | Haya | 14 |
| ALTMAN | Marina | 11 |
| APPELBAUM | Marina | 16 |
| ARBETSMAN | Eva | 14 |
| ASHKENAZI | Malka | 16 |
| ASHKENAZI | Israel | 13 |
| ASHKENAZI | Sarah | 10 |
| BERGMAN | Itzhak | 11 |
| BERGMAN | Eisik | 9 |
| BERNSTEIN | Zosha | 5 |
| BESSER | Nathan | 12 |
| BIRENFELD | Yehiel | 15 |
| BIRENFELD | David | 11 |
| BLANKENSTEIN | Roman | 16 |
| BLASZKOWSKI | Lucian | 13 |
| BLAU | Genia | 12 |
| BLAUSTEIN | Shimon | 16 |
| BLITZ | Yehoshua | |
| BLUMBERG | David | 16 |
| BOKINSKI | Baruch | 16 |
| BORENSTEIN | Michal | 12 |
| BORGENICHT | Leon | 15 |
| BRAMA | Nachman | 16 |
| BRAMA | Nachman | 14 |
| BRAMA | Nechama | 16 |
| BRENDER | Bonek | 10 |
| BRENDER | Regina | 13 |
| BUCH | Golda | 16 |
| DANIELSKI | David | 14 |
| DIAMAND | Frida | 6 |
| DYM | Berta | 12 |
| ENGELHARD | Chaim | 15 |
| EPSTEIN | Alexandra | 2 |
| FEDERBUSH | Lea | 13 |
| FEUR | Hersh | 12 |
| FEUR | Lazar | 13 |
| FISHER | Lola | 15 |
| FISHER | Magozita | 12 |
| FISHLER | Leon | 13 |
| FLANER | Papa | 15 |
| FRAGLAS | Klara | 5 |
| FREUND | Risha | 14 |
| FREUND | Moshe | 14 |
| FRIDLER | Genia | 6 |
| FRIDMAN | Irena | 15 |
| FRIDMAN | Naphtali | 10 |
| FRIDMAN | Rosilia | 13 |
| FRIDMAN | David | 13 |
| FUTTER | Meche | 13 |
| GABER | Solomon | 15 |
| GERSHTENBLUT | Zlata | 15 |
| GERSHTENBLUT | Rivka | 13 |
| GERTNER | Rachel | 9 |
| GERTNER | Hinda | 9 |
| GESUNTHEIT | Shmuel | 12 |
| GETZLER | Markus | 15 |
| GINSBURG | Ita | 7 |
| GINSBURG | Salomon | 3 |
| GLOBINSKA | Rona | 15 |
| GOISKI | Yehoshua | 12 |
| GOLDBERGER | Harry | 15 |
| GOLDFARB | Genia | 15 |
| GOTTESDINER | Berek | 10 |
| GOTTESDINER | Tzila | 8 |
| GOTTESDINER | Sala | 4 |
| GREIFNER | Heshek | 11 |
| GROMET | Mozed | 13 |
| GROMET | Yaakov | 13 |
| HENDEL | Hanah | 16 |
| HOFFMAN | Helina | 12 |
| HOLENBERG | Mania | 12 |
| HURT | Esther | 16 |
| INDIK | Miriam | 11 |
| KAGANOWITZ | Lodziya | 8 |
| KAHANA | Lola | 13 |
| KANNER | Leon | 13 |
| KAPLAN | Eliezer | 13 |
| KATZ | Yossef | 12 |
| KAWE | Izu | 1 |
| KIRSHENBAUM | Sarah | 12 |
| KLEIN | Stephan | 12 |
| KLEINMAN | Yaakov | 15 |
| KLEMPFER | Mendel | 16 |
| KLERFALS | Eva | 10 |
| KLERFELD | Marian | 6 |
| KLODINSKI | Yossef | 10 |
| KORZUCH | Fela | 12 |
| KORN | Solomon | 14 |
| KUPPER | Mark | 1 |
| KUPPERBERG | Kazek | 10 |
| LANGBERG | Benek | 8 |
| LANGBERG | Asher | 12 |
| LANGSAM | Frida | 15 |
| LANGSAM | Melech | 13 |
| LANGSAM | Chana | 10 |
| LAUFER | Elimelech | 13 |
| LAUFER | Perla | 10 |
| LEHRER | Adela | 16 |
| LEHRER | Frida | 13 |
| LEICHTER | Shoshana | 13 |
| LIBERMAN | Nathan | 16 |
| LIBERMAN | Dudek | 11 |
| LICHT | Charlotta | 12 |
| LICHT | Leon | 9 |
| LICHTER | Hinda | 13 |
| LUFTGLASS | Mashek | 14 |
| LUFTGLASS | Esther | 10 |
| MANDELBAUM | Rachel | 16 |
| MANDELBAUM | Yeshayahu | 14 |
| MANDELBAUM | Yossef | 15 |
| MANDELBAUM | Gedalia | 12 |
| MANDELBAUM | Sarah | 12 |
| MANDROWSKI | Israel | 16 |
| MANN | Michael | 13 |
| MANTIL | Rivka | 16 |
| MANTIL | Miriam | 14 |
| MANTIL | Haya | 11 |
| MAYER | Sonia | 14 |
| MAYER | Heniek | 12 |
| MEIRSDORF | Sarah | 13 |
| MESSERSHMIDT | Mania | 14 |
| MIECZIK | Yasha | 8 |
| MILSTEIN | Dora | 12 |
| MORGENSTERN | Yehoshua | 14 |
| MORGENSTERN | Riwka | 10 |
| MORGENSTERN | Shoshana | 8 |
| MOZES | Nahman | 13 |
| NETOWICZ | Celina | 12 |
| NEUSTEIN | Elvira | 15 |
| NISSANTZWEIG | Eva | 11 |
| PCZINEK | Itzhak | 13 |
| PETER | Yanek | 11 |
| PETER | Dora | 8 |
| PINKAS | Melech | 13 |
| PRZEDKOWICZ | Ella | 15 |
| RAWITZ | Lola | 14 |
| RAWITZ | Sabek | 14 |
| REISMAN | Esther | 11 |
| REIZMAN | Wolff | 14 |
| RIGGENHEIM | Hawa | 10 |
| ROMMER | Yehuda | 9 |
| ROMMER | Berek | 15 |
| ROMMER | Fania | 13 |
| ROMMER | Mania | 12 |
| ROMMER | Esther | 9 |
| ROSENBERG | Bluma | 9 |
| ROSENBLUM | Monik | 13 |
| ROSENBLUM | Rosa | 12 |
| ROSENBLUM | Hawa | 16 |
| ROSENTHAL | Markus | 16 |
| ROSENTHAL | Tzipora | 9 |
| ROSENTHAL | Sarah | 14 |
| ROTCHILD | Inga | 13 |
| RUBINFELD | Blima | 12 |
| RUBINSTEIN | Fania | 9 |
| RUDESZEWSKI | Moshe | 11 |
| RZUBISKI | Aaron | 9 |
| RZYPKO | Pessah | 14 |
| RZYPKO | Reuven | 11 |
| RZYPKO | Zalman | 16 |
| SAWITZKI | Yerzy | 10 |
| SCHECHTER | Mark | 10 |
| SCHECHTER | Tusha | 8 |
| SEGALOWICZ | Yeshayahu | 14 |
| SHAKRAKA | Motek | 14 |
| SHAPIRO | Yehuda | 13 |
| SHEFDEL | Chaim | 13 |
| SHEIFELD | Basha | 14 |
| SZER | Baruch | 13 |
| SZER | Golda | 15 |
| SHNAYER | Mira | 13 |
| SHNAYER | Israel | 9 |
| SHOWIN | Henech | 13 |
| SHPIGLER | Salek | 8 |
| SHPIGLER | Henech | 14 |
| SHPILMAN | Karola | 8 |
| SHTEINER | Paula | 16 |
| SHTEKEL | Yanek | 5 |
| SHTURM | Henia | 14 |
| SHTURM | Gittel | 3 |
| SHTURM | Yehoshua | 13 |
| SHUSTER | Roza | 1 |
| SHWEITZER | Awraham | 10 |
| SOBOL | Heniek | 10 |
| SOBOL | Yehuda | 14 |
| SONENSHEIN | Rachel | 5 |
| SPINER | Miriam | 11 |
| STRAUCH | Henia | 14 |
| TILLMAN | Nachman | 13 |
| TOBIAS | Israel | 12 |
| TOTENGRABBER | Ella | 14 |
| TREMBLINSKI | Yossef | 5 |
| TZENTKIAR | Benjaimin | 13 |
| TZUKER | Sonia | 4 |
| VERED | Rachel | 13 |
| VERED | Felicia | 14 |
| WAKSBERG | Yeshayahu | 15 |
| WAKSBERG | Israel | 14 |
| WASS | Molek | 10 |
| WEISBLUM | Aviva | 1 |
| WEISSFOGEL | Sabina | 15 |
| WEISSMAN | Itzhak | 13 |
| WENTZELBERG | Yona | 12 |
| WERTHEM | Lila | 14 |
| WICZIC | Tusha | 15 |
| WIENER | Sala | 5 |
| WILNER | Tulek | 12 |
| WINBERG | Lipa | 7 |
| WINFELD | Wolff | 13 |
| WINFELD | Guta | 13 |
| WISHNITZER | Leopold | 11 |
| WITMAN | Paula | 12 |
| WIZENFELD | Danuta | 8 |
| WIZENFELD | Arnold | 15 |
| WOHLGELERNTER | Palus | 5 |
| WURTMAN | Eisik | 16 |
| YAAKOV | Tziporah | 12 |
| YAAKOV | Shaul | 9 |
| ZEIDEN | Elvira | 12 |
| ZILBERTZWEIG | Rachel | 10 |
| ZILBERTZWEIG | Tula | 7 |
| ZOLMAN | Shmuel | 13 |
| ZOLMAN | Nathan | 9 |
| ZOLMAN | Basha | 9 |
| ZRUWANITZER | Hawa | 16 |
| BIRENFELD | Sarah |
| EINHORN | Moshe |
| ENGELHARDT | Dov |
| ENGELHARDT | Frimta |
| ERLICH | Awraham |
| FLOMENBAUM | Benyamin |
| GABER | Chaim |
| GABER | Tziporah |
| GINSBURG | Feie |
| GINSBURG | Sarah |
| GLUCHES | Bela |
| GOLDBERGER | Anna |
| GOLDBERGER | Yaakow |
| GOLDBERGER | Haya |
| GOTTESDINER | Mira |
| GOTTLIEB | Shimshon |
| GOTTLIEB | Gisela |
| KNOBEL | Roza |
| LUFTGLASS | Sarah |
| MANDEBAUM | Luba |
| MANDEBAUM | Duba |
| RAPPAPORT | Riwka |
| RICHARD | Mordechai |
| RICHARD | Dwora |
| RIMMER | Yente |
| ROSENGARTEN | Pola |
| SHAPIRO | Avraham |
| SHAPIRO | |
| SHAPIRO | Yehoshua |
| SHAPIRO | Ella |
| SHAPIRO | Lea |
| SHUSTER | Aaron |
| SHUSTER | Liza |
| TEPFER | Shalom |
| WEISSBLUM | Meir |
| WEISSBLUM | Sarah |
| WIZENFELD | Mendel |
| WOHLGELERNTER | Haya |
| WULKAN | Elimelech |
| YERED | Sarah |
| YERED | Lisa |
| ZOLMAN | Sarah |
| Rabbi Itzhak Eisik Halevi Herzog Yaakov Herzog Rabbi Zeev Gold Rabbi Itamar Wohlgelernter Vaad Ha'hatzalah Representative Rachel Sternbuch Vaad Ha'hatzalah Representative Additional Representatives |
| ASZER | Nirla | 1939 |
| BANDER | Chaya | 1930 |
| BINDERMEN | Rifka | 1937 |
| BINDERMEN | Josef | 1935 |
| BINDERMEN | Chaya | 1932 |
| CZERNOGORA | Feiga | 1935 |
| CZERNOGORA | Chani | 1923 |
| FAYER (FEUER) | Jankel | 1933 |
| FAYER (FEUER) | Yankel | 1933 |
| FINKELMAN | Liba | 1936 |
| FINKELMAN | Chene | 1938 |
| FLISZER | Les | 1936 |
| FLISZER | Szlama | 1931 |
| FOJBOMOIM (FEIGENBOIM) | Pinkusz | 1938 |
| FUCHS | Judita | 1933 |
| FUCHS | Mojze | 1936 |
| GAYER | Mordechai | 1930 |
| GAYER | Jankel | 1930 |
| GITTELBAUM | Kalmen | 1930 |
| GRUBER | Israel | 1937 |
| JODWERKER | Ryke | 1943 |
| LEHRER | Feige | 1936 |
| LEHRER | Izrael | 1938 |
| LEHRER | Mayer | 1933 |
| LEICHTER | Ruchla | 1938 |
| PERL (PEARL) | Arie | 1930 |
| RIBAK | Juda | 1930 |
| SZIER | Szura | 1935 |
| SZIER | Jakub | 1931 |
| THERBAUM | Lea | 1936 |
| WALTER | Szmul | 1938 |
The UNRRA staff at the camp was well prepared to receive the children and adults. Each group was assigned their place. The group leaders assumed their roles in controlling their children. An overall committee was created of UNRRA, Joint officials, Vaad Ha'hatzalah and Czech welfare officials to supervise the activities of the children.
While the original number of children leaving Poland was to have been 1,000, the number first dropped to 750, and then finally only 500 actually boarded the train. During their stay in the Deblice camp about 12 children were reunited with their families. The JDC had to assume full financial responsibility for the children's welfare in the camp. The six weeks the children stayed in Deblice was a challenge to the children's supervisors and to the JDC. The children's boundless energy had to be channelled or chaos easily ensued. This required both planning and money.
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| The partial list of children aboard the train. The list is in Hebrew transliterated from a Polish list. The shifting of lists from language to language caused some misspellings and errors of name spelling. |
In the Deblice camp, the “madrichim” (counselors) or head counselors and their assistants devised activities for the youngsters. Moshe Einhorn, Yeshua Spiner and Meir Weisblum were in charge of the Mizrahi/Hapoel Hamizrahi contingent. Rachel Sternbuch was in charge of the Aguda contingent. Overall supervision of the children was made up of representatives from UNRRA, the JDC's Czech office, Vaad Ha'hatzalah and the Prague Jewish community. The children had to be kept busy. To do this their supervisors organized cultural and entertaining programs and educational lectures. The Aguda groups devoted their time to study religious materials while the Mizrahi groups devoted their time to educational, historical and cultural activities. David (Danielski) Danieli, who spent much of his childhood hiding out in a Christian home, having no contact with his Jewish brethren, remembers, “We finally left Poland and reached Prague where we remained in this camp for about five weeks. I had never met so many different types of Jews all in one place at the same time”.[9]
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| Jewish orphans with their teacher upon arrival in Prague |
The JDC in Prague was totally unprepared for the arrival of the children and their poor condition as can be seen from the pictures. Jacobson sent a cable to headquarters where he states that his office knew nothing about the transport yet when it arrived the Joint office in Prague had to supplement food, buy shoes etc…
Reprinted cable for legibility.
| “…FURTHER VAAD HAZALAH AND CHIEF RABBI HERZOG BROUGHT PRAGUE 488 JEWISH ORPHANS AND 101 MADRICHIM WHO RECEIVED PRACTICALLY NO HELP VAAD HAZALAH WE PROVIDED CHILDREN AND MADRICHIM SUBSTANTIAL FOOD SUPPLIES AND PURCHASED WITH PERMISSION GOVERNMENT $5,000 SHOES CLOTHING ALSO GAVE LIBERALLY WITHIN MEANS OUR CLOTHING STORES STOP”
JDC cable # 3879 |
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| Original cable |
“The activities our camp counselors organized kept us busy and before we knew it the High Holidays were on us. The first day of Rosh Hashanah we walked from the camp to the Maharal Synagogue in Prague, the ‘Alte Neu Shul.’ At the synagogue I heard the story of the ‘Golem’ for the first time. I was very impressed with the streets of Prague and some of the beautiful buildings. The city was not embarrassed to display Hebrew letters, namely on the bridge or on several buildings. I really enjoyed Prague. When the two–day Rosh Hashanah holiday was over we were told to pack. We were driven to the railway station where we boarded a train”[11]. The train would cross Germany and reach Strasbourg, France where the transport ended the journey for all practical purposes. The Mizrahi contingent including the Zabrze children would leave the train to a tumultuous welcome organized by the Strasbourg Bnei Akiva religious youth group while the Aguda contingent would head to homes in Aix–les–Bains in Southern France.
The Czech government was extremely helpful with the children from the Herzog Train. In a later cable, JDC's Israel Jacobson thanked the Czech government for the enormous help it had provided for all the Jewish refugees, not only the children. Jacobson pointed out that approximately 700 Jewish refugees a day were streaming across the Czech border. No wonder that the JDC was somewhat harried by the sudden appearance of nearly 500 children and another 101 minders. Again, the assistance provided by Zoltan Toman can only be guessed at because no written documents exist.
However, a cable by the JDC's Israel Jacobson to the Czech government points out the many positive press reports that praise the Czech assistance and also hints at Toman's involvement by including his name as a recipient in the cable.
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| Jewish children aboard the train |
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| Publicity letters expressing JDC thanks to the Czech government for the assistance granted to Jewish refugees crossing Czechoslovakia |
Footnotes
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the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
for verification.
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Updated 17 Mar 2016 by JH
