Preparations for Deportation

In September 1941, Hitler issued orders to deport all German Jews to ghettos in the occupied East-Central and Eastern European regions. Here, they were subjected to forced labour. Many died as a result of the harsh working conditions, and many more were murdered. The directives came from the Reich Security Central Office (German: Reichssicherheitshauptamt). The political police, the Gestapo, took on the overall coordination for the preparation and execution of the deportations.

The Gestapo control center in Hannover selected about 1000 people for the first round of deportations - nearly two thirds of the Jews that still lived in the city – and requested their declarations of assets. Between the 10th and 14th of December, they brought the selected Jews to the “collection point for deportation.” For this purpose, the Gestapo had chosen the grounds of the Israelite School of Horticulture (founded in 1893) in Ahlem on the outskirts of the city. Until the end of the Nazi regime, they turned the education facility into a place of fear and terror. In the beginning of 1942, a “Jews’ House” (German: Judenhaus) was established in one of the school buildings. Its residents were required to perform forced labour. From the summer of 1943, the Gestapo moved its administration offices into the director’s house (German: Direktorenhaus) and, lastly, set up a notorious prison and execution site.

Picture credits

1: Heiner Wittrock: Das Schicksal der Juden in Wunstorf. Hannover 1990.

2: Region of Hannover