Schipkau

Shortly before British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen, the SS evacuated about 6,700 Jews from the camp divided in three train transports. Most likely, the transports were destined for Theresienstadt in Bohemia-Moravia but no one knows for sure. These evacuations were not unique for Bergen-Belsen but occurred at all camps threatened by the enemy. In some camps, evacuation was carried out on foot, by truck or as in Belsen’s case by train. Common to them all was that the prisoners were usually sick or physically weak as a consequence of the hardship they had suffered in the camp, especially at the end of the war. The first transport departed on 6 april with about 2500 jews who after six days arrived at Farsleben, north of Magdeburg, where it was abandoned by the germans and liberated next day by american troops.

The second transport departed on April 9 with about 1700 prisoners arriving after twelve days to Theresienstadt where they were liberated by the Red Army. During that transport, a typhoid epidemic broke out and the transport was also accidentally bombed by allied aircraft. The last transport has gone down in history as ”the Lost train” (Verlorener Zug) and departed from Belsen on April 11. The transport consisted of about 2400 Jewish prisoners from twelve nations and it was liberated twelve days later by the Red Army in Tröbitz, about seventy kilometres south of Berlin. Then, like the first transport, it had also been abandoned by the guards. During transport, a typhoid epidemic erupted and about 200 prisoners did not survive, another 300 prisoners died in the days following the liberation. During the trip, the transport stopped at 21 places and between 19 – 20 April it stood just outside Schipkau, about thirty kilometres east of Tröbitz.