The German Museum of Technology deals in its exhibition with the involvement of the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Reich Railway) in the Holocaust, and commemorates the deported Jews by presenting individual biographies of deportees.
In October 1941, the Berlin-based Reich Main Security Office began deporting Jews from the German Reich to the east, to concentration camps and death camps in territories occupied by Germany. This happened in close cooperation with the Reich Ministry for Transport. All details connected to the deportations were planned by department IV B 4 of the Reich Main Security Office – the section for »Jewish Affairs« led by Adolf Eichmann. Already in 1939, the Reich Main Security Office had made use of the Reichbahn's services in carrying out extensive »resettlement operations«. Department 21 »Mass transportation« at the Reich Ministry for Transport was responsible for all issues concerning the Reichsbahn. It checked all Gestapo orders for special trains and compiled the respective railway schedules. A sub-department coordinated all authorities involved in conducting the deportations. At first, the Reichsbahn used older passenger trains for the deportations, however, from 1942 on, it increasingly began deploying freight trains. The trains could carry up to 1,000 people on one transport. The cost of the »conveyance« of the Jews was charged to the respective Jewish community: 4 Pfennig per adult per kilometre, 2 Pfennig for children. The Reichsbahn granted a discount for transports carrying over 400 people.
About 130,000 Jews were deported by train from the German Reich to ghettos and death camps in the east. Some 180 trains carrying over 50,000 Jews departed from Berlin alone.
For many years, the complicity of the German railway in the crimes committed by the National Socialist regime was not publicly addressed. First efforts to face the past emerged at the end of the 1980s, when public pressure forced the Deutsche Bahn – the German state railway – to deal with its history.
The German Museum of Technology has presented information about the deportation of Jews by the German Reichsbahn since 1988. One of the freight cars used for the deportations is on display at the museum. In October 2005, a permanent exhibition on this topic was unveiled in locomotive shed 2 of the museum. The exhibition strives to give an overview of the deportations from the German Reich to the ghettos and death camps, dealing with the topic in all its complexity. The exhibition was created by Alfred Gottwaldt, a leading expert on the topic of rail transport. Among other things, the exhibition portrays the biographies of 12 Jews deported from Berlin and Brandenburg. Visitors can retrieve information about all of the deportation transports at a media station; in addition, twelve transports which departed from Berlin are presented in detail.
The German Museum of Technology has presented information about the deportation of Jews by the German Reichsbahn since 1988. One of the freight cars used for the deportations is on display at the museum. In October 2005, a permanent exhibition on this topic was unveiled in locomotive shed 2 of the museum. The exhibition strives to give an overview of the deportations from the German Reich to the ghettos and death camps, dealing with the topic in all its complexity. The exhibition was created by Alfred Gottwaldt, a leading expert on the topic of rail transport. Among other things, the exhibition portrays the biographies of 12 Jews deported from Berlin and Brandenburg. Visitors can retrieve information about all of the deportation transports at a media station; in addition, twelve transports which departed from Berlin are presented in detail.
- Name
- Ausstellung Schienenverkehr im Deutschen Technikmuseum
- Address
-
Trebbiner Straße 9
10963 Berlin - Phone
- +49(0) 30 90 254 0
- Fax
- +49(0) 30 90 254 175
- Web
- http://www.sdtb.de
- info@sdtb.de
- Open
- Tuesday to Friday 9 a.m. To 5.30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. To 6 p.m., closed on Mondays
- Possibilities
- General tours and special tours for children, school groups and other groups, children's birthday parties, group events, lectures, seminars, historical archive, museum park