Special trains to death

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Special Trains to Death is the title of a traveling exhibition that recalls the deportation of hundreds of thousands of people by the Reichsbahn at the time to the National Socialist concentration and extermination camps . It was shown in France in 2006 and changed in Germany in 2008 , mainly in train stations until 2015 in 44 locations. More than 400,000 visitors saw it.

History and concept of the exhibition

In Germany, the exhibition opened on January 23, 2008 on the mezzanine floor of Potsdamer Platz train station . Afterwards the exhibition could be seen at the main station in Halle (Saale) . From March 28th to April 10th she was on display at Schwerin Central Station . The exhibition was hosted in Wittenberge until May 12, and at Münster Central Station from May 18 to June 15 . This was followed by positions in Cologne , Frankfurt am Main , Dresden and Munich . From November 14th to 26th, 2008 it was shown at Mannheim Central Station . Around 80,000 visitors were expected by the end of 2008. In 2009 the traveling exhibition was to be continued and lent free of charge to interested cities. The first stop was Hanau in January 2009 . The exhibition was shown in Chemnitz from January 22, 2009 , and in the Jewish Museum in Dorsten from February 15 .

In the Drancy assembly camp , this car is a reminder of the trains to Germany (2006)
First, the German Jews were as passengers with compartment car deported this type (2006)

The exhibition, conceived by Deutsche Bahn in collaboration with Beate and Serge Klarsfeld together with a citizens' initiative, integrates elements from the exhibition Enfants juifs déportés de France , which was shown over three years at train stations of the French SNCF . Of a total of 40 information boards, 15 are based on this collection.

According to estimates by Deutsche Bahn AG, around 30,000 people had visited the exhibition by April 2008.

Discourse about the exhibition

The exhibition went u. a. a public dispute between the Klarsfelds and DB AG preceded it after the company refused to show the exhibition shown in France at German train stations.

In an interview in November 2006, DB CEO Hartmut Mehdorn justified his rejection of the traveling exhibition: “There is hurry and hurry at train stations. There are no places for such a serious subject as the Holocaust. There can be no serious, in-depth study of such a topic there. We know our traffic stations and the people who are there. I am even inclined to say that if you did it would be counterproductive. 'Shock and go' no longer works. "

He also said that Deutsche Bahn had “compared to other large companies in an exemplary manner with [their] past”. He referred to a permanent exhibition in the DB Museum in Nuremberg , visited by 200,000 people every year , the participation in the compensation fund for former forced laborers , the education of their own trainees and the support for the film The Last Train . Klarsfeld wanted to “dictate your exhibition” to the company. After the group refused, the newspaper learned that the company was trying to suppress the confrontation with the Nazi era. Mehdorn announced the establishment of a traveling exhibition to be shown near train stations.

The establishment of a traveling exhibition at train stations for the deportations was agreed between Federal Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee and Mehdorn on December 1, 2006.

See also

Memorials in Germany:

literature

  • Andreas Engwert, Susanne Kill (Ed.): Special trains in the death. The deportations with the Deutsche Reichsbahn , Böhlau, Cologne 2009, 162 pages. ISBN 978-3-412-20337-5 (a documentation by Deutsche Bahn; accompanying publication to the traveling exhibition of the same name).
  • Raul Hilberg : Special trains to Auschwitz . Mainz 1981, ISBN 3-921426-18-9 . The American original ( The Role of the German Railroads in the Destruction of the Jews ) was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in 1976 .
  • Serge Klarsfeld : Le Mémorial des enfants juifs déportés de France (= La Shoah en France , Volume 4). Commemorative ribbon for the children deported from France. Édition Fayard, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-213-61052-5 (French; names all trains and the number of children deported on them and, of the majority, also the personal details and photographs).
  • Heiner Lichtenstein : With the Reichsbahn into death. Mass transports in the Holocaust 1941 to 1945 . Bund, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-7663-0809-2 .
  • Alfred Gottwaldt, Diana Schulle (ed.): The »Deportations of Jews« from the German Reich 1941–1945 . Marix, Wiesbaden 2007. ISBN 978-3-86539-059-2 (Describes in detail all trains including train numbers and number of occupants from October 15, 1941, departure until April 15, 1945, arrival, along with various facsimiles of instructions from the authorities at the time Execution of the transports).
  • Russalka Nikolov, Jürgen Franke, Ursula Bartelsheim; DB Museum Nürnberg (Ed.): In the service of democracy and dictatorship. The Reichsbahn 1920–1945 (= history of the railway in Germany , volume 2), catalog for the permanent exhibition in the DB Museum , Nuremberg 2002, ISBN 3-9807652-2-9 ( table of contents ).
  • Kurt Pätzold , Erika Schwarz: "For me Auschwitz was just a train station." Franz Novak - Adolf Eichmann's transport officer . Metropol, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-926893-22-2 . (via Franz Novak )
  • Janusz Piekałkiewicz : The Deutsche Reichsbahn in World War II. Transpress, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-344-70812-0 .

Movie

  • Wolfgang Schoen, Frank Gutermuth: According to the timetable into death - Europe's railways and the Holocaust. Documentation, D u. F, 90 min, 2011 (mainly on the collaboration with the SNCF)
  • Winfried Oelsner: File D (2/3) - The war legacy of the railway. Documentation, 2014, 45 min. (On the influence of Nazi politics, the tasks of the Ostbahn , role of GD Julius Dorpmüller and role / trial against Albert Ganzenmüller , financing of the deportation trains, use of almost 500,000 forced laborers; broadcast commentary on Phoenix.de from Nov. . 2016)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Deutsche Bahn opens touring exhibition on the role of the Reichsbahn during the Holocaust . Website can no longer be reached Deutsche Bahn AG, press release of January 23, 2008
  2. ↑ Contested exhibition: “Special trains into death” is shown in the train station . Spiegel Online , January 22, 2008.
  3. ↑ Deutsche Bahn shows touring exhibition on the role of the Reichsbahn during the Holocaust in Schwerin . Deutsche Bahn AG, press release of March 28, 2008
  4. ↑ a b DB traveling exhibition meets with great interest . In: DB Welt , May 2008 edition, p. 4.
  5. ↑ Touring exhibition “Special Trains in Death” will be continued in 2009 . Deutsche Bahn AG, press release of November 10, 2008
  6. ↑ In 2009 DB shows an exhibition about the Nazi era . In: DB Welt , January 2009, p. 5.
  7. ↑ a b We railroaders don't need a new exhibition, we have one.
  8. ↑ to the small question of the deputy Dr. Lukrezia Jochimsen, Petra Pau, Dr. Gesine Lötzsch, another MP and the DIE LINKE parliamentary group. (PDF; 61 kB; 4 pages) German Bundestag, printed matter 16/7875, February 11, 2008