Italy entered the war.¹³¹⁸ On 26 August 1940, by dint of great efforts, the kehillah
managed to put together a transport of 524 people to Eretz Israel, which
reached its destination.¹³¹⁹ After that, only individuals emigrated. At the outbreak
of war and thereafter, the attitude to Jews was loyal. Several Jews, most
of them Polish subjects, were taken to labour camps. Some died. In the prewar
period, there was an official agency in Gdańsk called Der Beauftragte für die
Förderung und Sicherstellung der jüdischen Auswanderung.¹³²⁰ That agency had
at its disposal Jewish assets amounting to around 2 million DG.¹³²¹ The money
was used for the upkeep of Gdańsk Jews who had no savings accounts. It was
also used to cover the costs of emigration. [2] Out of the 700 Jews in Gdańsk
of late, 500 have received financial support. They have received 40 RM each;
and their family members have received supplementary benefits. In addition,
special payments have been made for the following: rent, doctor and dentist
bills, medication, shoe and clothing repairs, and other items which are not
daily necessities. A small number of Jews have been employed in enterprises
working for the Wehrmacht. At the end of February this year, 400 Jews had
to leave Gdańsk; they arrived in Warsaw on 10 March, after a 10-day journey.
¹³²² On the whole, it can be said that since the outbreak of the war, Jews
1318 10 June 1940.
1319 A group of over 500 people was assembled on 26 August 1940. They were put on third-class passenger trains and transported via Poznań and Wrocław to Bratislava, where on 27 August they joined a group of 300 Czech Jews and boarded the river boat Helios. From there the Jews reached the Black Sea, where they boarded a sea ship. Most of the passengers were not let into Palestine by the British and they were interned on Mauritius until the end of the war. It was the last emigration transport from Gdańsk. See Żydzi na terenie Wolnego Miasta, p. 283.
1320 (German) Plenipotentiary for support and protection of Jewish emigration. After the incorporation of the Free City into the Reich, the control over Jewish property and emigration was entrusted to the Office of the Statthalter für Reichsgau Danzig-West-Preußen, the Committee for Support of Jewish Emigration. The official plenipotentiary for Jewish affairs was Walther Hilderbrandt, while the financial affairs were in the hands of Rudolph Bittner. The police chief was still in charge of Jewish emigration. In practice, the task of removing the Jews was taken over by the Gestapo, the Security Service (SD), and the Security Police (Sipo). See ibidem, pp. 262–264.
1321 Danziger Gulden — currency used in the Free City of Gdańsk from 1923 to 1939. In September 1939, 1 DG equalled 70 German pfennigs.
1322 In late 1940 the civilian plenipotentiary for Jewish affairs, R. Sander, was asked to compile a list of Jews living in Gdańsk. In February 1941 all those listed were called for
