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Siegburg
1942/07/19
In the rain-soaked courtyard, a police officer holding a piece of paper in his hands looks towards the camera. Six or seven persecuted men are standing in front of him, behind him is a man in civilian clothes - probably a Gestapo or criminal investigation officer. On the other side of the pole, a customs officer can be seen.
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Historical context
Deportation von Siegburg nach Minsk, 19.07.1942
From 1939/40 on, the Siegburg residents persecuted for being Jews were forced to live in a so called “Judenhaus” on Brandstraße 42/44 and later also in the nearby camp in Much. The Cologne Gestapo was in charge of deporting them from there on three transports that left between June 14 and July 27, 1942.
The second transport took place on July 19, 1942, and was announced to the county commissioner in charge five days before. At eight o’clock in the morning, twenty-three Siegburg Jews were taken by truck from Brandstraße to the exhibition halls in Cologne-Deutz which were being used as an assembly camp. This transport heading for Cologne included people from the Much camp and other places.
From the exhibition halls, the Siegburg Jews were deported to Minsk on transport DA 219, as were other Jews from the administrative district of Cologne. They were transported in passenger cars at first, but had to move to cattle cars in Vawkavysk. While the vacant passenger train was sent to Breslau to deport more people, German and Latvian SS men either shot the 1,164 people from the Rhineland in the Blagovshchina forest or murdered them in gas vans.
About the image series
Franz Schneider, a criminal investigation police officer in the rank of “Kriminalsekretär,” took at least 13 pictures of the deportation of the Jews which have survived in the municipal archives as original prints in the format 6.5 x 9.5. The photos are probably direct prints from negatives that no longer exist, in the 6 x 9 format most common at the time. It cannot be ruled out that the police officer used his official camera to take them.
The first part of the series shows the check and marking of luggage in the rain-soaked courtyard of the “Zwangshaus” (house where Jews had to live together temporarily before being deported) on Brandstraße. Supervised by a customs officer, younger men inspect the luggage on a ping-pong table set up for the purpose.
The second part of the series was taken in the street and depicts the laborious process of people boarding the trailer of a heavy truck.
The last photos of the series also show bystanders in the street.
Photographer
Franz Schneider, Kriminal-Sekretär
Franz Schneider, who was born in Overath in 1883, joined the police in 1920. After he became a member of the Nazi party NSDAP in 1933, he was entrusted with “performing all criminal investigation police tasks” in Siegburg in 1934. According to a newspaper report, Schneider was promoted to the rank of “Kriminalsekretär” of the criminal investigation police and given the newly created position on January 30, 1938. Nevertheless, Schneider argued in his denazification proceedings that he had been considered “a friend of the Jews by the National Socialist district management”.
In 1946, Schneider was retired on grounds of age, and shortly thereafter classified as “exonerated” in his denazification procedure.
Provenance
Maria Geimer, head of the municipal archives, had the photos taken for the war chronicle, which notes:
“The last Jews to be deported from Siegburg were those gathered in the “Judenhaus” (house where Jews had to stay while awaiting deportation) on Brandstraße 42/44 who left Siegburg in three groups on 14.6., 19.7., and 27.7.42. Prior to their transport by truck, the police searched and inspected them and the luggage they were allowed to take with them. Some photographs taken by Mr. Schneider, a police officer from the criminal investigation police in Siegburg, show the deportation transport [...] on 19.7.1942. This means that all the Jews who were staying in Siegburg have been removed, except those living in mixed marriages (3). Their property was transferred to the Reich Property Administration to be managed by the tax offices. This office has taken charge of selling the belongings left behind and of renting out the vacant apartments.”
Call number at source archive
Siegburg 19.07.1942 Deportation 03
Title at source archive
Ohne Titel
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Jan Gerull and Jenny Ley from the Siegburg municipal archives for their gracious assistance.
Text and research by Christoph Kreutzmüller.
Kooperationsverbund #LastSeen. Bilder der NS-Deportationen Dr. Alina Bothe Projektleiterin
c/o Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg
Freie Universität Berlin
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14195 Berlin
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