For this purpose, 10,000 children were to be transferred to Theresienstadt. However, due to the objections of the Mufti, the plan had to be abandoned. Eichmann stated at his trial that when Himmler canceled the operation, he forbade any consideration of plans to resettle Jews in Palestine. The intervention of the Mufti is considered by historians Sara Bender and Tobiasz Cyton to be the decisive factor leading to the murder of the children. According to Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer, it is most likely that both the Białystok children and the establishment of the Theresienstadt family camp were connected to the Feldscher proposal; in both cases the victims were temporarily kept alive in case they could be exchanged later, but murdered when the ransom failed to materialize. Bauer also states that Himmler's motivation to engage in negotiations was related to his belief that a Jewish conspiracy controlled the Allied governments; using Jewish children, he hoped to manipulate Allied leaders to his own advantage as it became clear that Germany would lose the war. On 17 August, the first day of the deportations, about 2,000 children were gathered near the train station waiting to be deported. The Germans separated them from their parents and housed them, along with 400 children from two Jewish orphanages in Białystok, during the chaotic liquidation of the ghetto. Rumors circulated that the children would be exchanged for German prisoners of war and sent to safety in Switzerland. Some parents gave up their children voluntarily, hoping to save their lives. Other families were separated by force; survivors testified that Ukrainian auxiliaries murdered some children who tried to run back to their parents. Held in a former gymnasium, the children were treated well on the orders of Fritz Gustav, head of the Białystok Gestapo, who stated "These children are mine!" However, German troops accidentally shelled the building on 18 August, killing a few dozen children. On 20 August, some 1,200 children between four and fourteen and a few dozen adult chaperones were marched separately to the "Umschlagplatz", where they were given only a small amount of dried bread and no water, despite the heat. Probably on 21 August, the children and caregivers boarded a special train that arrived at Theresienstadt concentration camp three days later. It is unclear whether the train was composed of freight cars, as was typically the case during the Holocaust, or passenger cars. The conditions on the train were relatively good and after a while the children began to forget the horrors of the Białystok Ghetto, although some of the older children asked the chaperones if they should jump from the trains.