"I am alive! It is a miracle from G'd"
START Origin Home Discrimination Emigration SS St Louis Camp Odyssey New Life
Mina
Markus
Jakob and Frieda
Oskar
Salo
Leon
 Mina Blechner on the balcony of their apartment at Klenzestrasse 65/II, Munich before 1938. Milbertshofen Barracks - the collection camp for the deportation of the Jews of Munich. Departure in the early hours of the 20th November, 1941. Mina Blechner's passport photo. Fort IX, Kaunas, place of execution of the Munich Jews, including Mina Blechner.
Deportation list of 15.11.1941. Mina Blechner is listed as number 191. Deportation list of 15.11.1941. Mina Blechner is listed as number 191.
Letter from Mina Blechner dd 9th January 1940 documenting her efforts to secure the release of her son Salo and his emigration from Germany.
Last letter from Mina Blechner to her children dd 19th November 1941.

Mina
Deportation and murder

After the arrest of Markus and Salo in September Mina is alone and leads a desperate battle to secure their release. She tries unceasingly to obtain visas for her husband, her son and herself. Her efforts are to no avail. She receives the news that her husband, Markus had died 14th November 1939 in Buchenwald. At the beginning of March 1940, Mina is forced to leave her apartment in Klenzestraße; she is billeted in a so-called "Jewish apartment" at 27 Reichenbachstraße, where she has to live in extremely cramped quarters in the kitchen.

In October 1941, the Nazi leadership orders the deportation of Jews in Germany to the East. Mina Blechner receives the summons to prepare for "evacuation" on 7th November 1941. She guesses what fate has in store for her. Mina is desperate, as she knows that she will never see her children again. On 11th November 1941, Mina and the other men, women and children deportees are brought to the Milbertshofen barracks. On 19th November, a few hours before they are marched to the Milbertshofen freight depot, Mina writes a letter to Jakob. Despite her desperate and hopeless situation she seeks to give courage and strength to her children. This letter is the last sign of life from Mina Blechner.

The deportation train with 1000 people from Munich leaves the Milbertshofen depot in the early hours of 20th November 1941. After a three-day journey, the train arrives in Kaunas, Lithuania. The prisoners are taken to fortifications on the outskirts of the city. On 25th November, the infamous Einsatzkommando 3 murders the Munich Jews, together with deportees from Frankfurt and Berlin. The mass shooting that day claims the lives of 1159 men, 1600 women and 175 children.