On the morning of February 5, 1945, at the train platform of Ghetto Theresienstadt, 1,200 excited men, women and children boarded the carriages of a fancy passenger train, a train very different from what they were used to seeing in recent months.

The train set off and arrived in Switzerland the next day. When the train arrived in St. Gallen, they were greeted by members of the ‘Rescue Committee’ that Swiss Jews had established to help Jewish refugees and bring them from the concentration camps to Switzerland. The rescue operation was made possible through the mediation of the former president, Jean-Marie Moussi, who, despite his views in the past, was horrified by the results of the Germans’ actions and tried to save what was possible.

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