First mass transport of Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp
The first mass transport of Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp departed from Poprad transit camp in the Slovak State on 25 March 1942 and arrived at its destination on 26 March. It was the beginning of systematic deportation of Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp by the Reich Security Main Office and also the first transport of Jews from Slovakia. Background Deportation was the natural outcome of the anti-Jewish measures imposed by the Axis-aligned Slovak State between 1939 and early 1942. The Jews had been forbidden to work without special permission and their businesses had been Aryanized, creating widespread poverty. In order to rid itself of this manufactured problem, Slovakia agreed with the German government to deport 20,000 Jews of working age to German-occupied Poland, paying Nazi Germany 500 Reichsmarks each (supposedly to cover the cost of resettlement). According to the agreement, seven thousand unmarried women were to be deported to Auschwitz concentration camp and thirteen thousand unmarried men were to be deported to Majdanek concentration camp. Auschwitz was established in 1940. Its first victims were Soviet prisoners of war, Polish political prisoners, and some Jewish forced laborers at Schmelt Organization camps in East Upper Silesia who were no longer able