… ‚as goods are permitted…’ Deported from Vienna and murdered in Malyj Trostenez. Objects from a last journey.

The National Socialist dictatorship was characterised by persecution, terror and mass murders. Millions of people were deprived of their dignity and freedom and lives because of their ideology, their political and social stance or their religious or ethnic origin. Mass killings took place primarily in extermination centres in the former Generalgouvernement Polen or in the so-called Reichskommissariat Ostland. People were told falsely that they would be resettled. The people to be deported received instructions from the Jewish community with a list of what was to be strictly taken with them but also with the advice that ‘useless loads are to be avoided’. One destination of the deportations was Malyj Trostenez, located southeast of Minsk (present-day Belarus). In ten deportations between May and October 1942, about 10,000 people from Vienna were deported by train to Malyj Trostenez and directly murdered there by mass shootings. In total, it is estimated that 100,000 victims were killed. Numerous finds are known from Malyj Trostenez, which were found during the construction of a memorial at the killing site in 2017 and 2018. The majority of these items probably belonged to the victims as several have a clear connection to Vienna or Austria through inscriptions. This paper discusses the question of what the people took with them on this journey and whether there is a correlation between the instructions on the leaflet and the remains found at Malyj Trostenez.