The Arrest of the Jewish Women and Children.
On November 24, 1942 the head of the State Police Karl Alfred Marthinsen received the order from the German Security Police for the deportation of all Jews in Norway with the letter “J” stamped in their identification papers. The transport ship SS Donau (seen in the background) was scheduled to depart from Oslo harbor at 15.00 on Thursday, November 26, 1942.
The Jewish men who had been arrested on October 26 were already interned in prison camps. The arrest of Jewish women and children from outside of Oslo took place on November 25, while the arrest in Oslo began in the early hours of November 26. The arrests were carried out by Norwegian police forces in collaboration with members of the paramilitary NS Hird organization and the Germanic SS Norway, using local taxis and other means of transportation to deliver the 532 Jewish men, women, and children to the SS Donau. The ship arrived in Stettin, Germany, on November 30, 1942, from where the prisoners were dispatched by train to the death camp at Auschwitz.
The SS Donau was the largest of the four Jewish deportations from Oslo to Germany. A total of 772 Jews were deported from Norway on these transports.