Family photos



The firstborn son of Sara and Lazarus, my uncle Moritz Kaufmann (Kalonymos bar Elieser), his wife Henrietta née Herz and their five children were, according to a German historian, the late Herr Dieter Corbach, deported to the East in mid-1942.

The family was on Deportation Train #Da 219 (Convoy VI) scheduled to depart from Cologne Messe-Deutz station at 6 A.M. on July 20, 1942. in the direction of Minsk/Trostenez.

This train took a group of 1046 "pure" Jews and 118 children under the age of 10 to the killing grounds of Maly-Trostenez, near the Minsk Getto. The count of children is very precise, in line with teutonic thoroughness ("Gründlichkeit") and generosity (!), as children only paid half the adult fare.

There is no doubt that neither the adults nor the children—Klara (16), the first-born son, 14 year-old Leo Günter (Elieser bar Kalonymos), Manfred Max (10) and Hilde (9)—realized what awaited them "in the East." The name of 18 year-old Else (or Ilse) is also on the manifest.