jesustrain

Kindertransports

The Kindertransports refer to the system of trains and schedules and programs in which children were sent to live in safety from wartorn areas, or from encroaching Nazi threat. Both Jewish and Gentile Children were involved in the Kindertransports, in which willing and unwilling parents sent their children by train often out of the country or to rural areas to relatives. sponsoring families or orphanages. Many did not know it would be their last time with their families, as the family that remained behind often were killed by the events of war or deported to a certain death.

Military Transports

The Military Transports in Germany were a feat of wonder: since most of the occupied territories and battle fronts were away from Germany, the train system was the major means of transporting troops to the scene of battle and duty. The effects on the German Domestic scene were phenomenal: all trains for non-essental travel were cancelled. The trains for Military personnel would occasionally cross the paths of the trains bound for the killing centers, meaning that at least during the war some troops were aware of what was happening. Hans Scholl, of the White Rose was a medical student at the time conscripted into the Nazi Army, who describes an instance of running into prisoners on their way to death: he later went on with others to found one of the more significant resistance groups at the University of Munich when he returned from service. The trains for troops were diverted at certain times to deport even more Jews to the Killing Centers as the war progressed. At least once, this was done at Christmas, with many young men on leave. Goebbels, propaganda minister for Hitler announced that the young men were being given an extra week of leave: this of course thrilled the German families involved. What it was hiding was a massive 'shipment' of persons sent to slave camps and killing centers. Cruelty was often disguised to the German people as a benefit.

Supply Trains

Trains were also used in the supply of every need in the war. There is much discussion in the records of the Nazis regarding food and winter clothing shipments by train to the troops. Medical supplies either arrived or did not depending on train schedules as did replacement troops, weapons and pay. Resistance Movement members often targeted supply trains to prevent the flow of supplies to the troops, and targeted prisoner trains to lessen the numbers killed. This was done by bombing train tracks, diverting schedules, and other clever maneuvers. IVB4, headed by Eichmann, the Bureau for Jewish Affairs was also in charge of "Procurement"---the supply of everything needed for the war effort by train, as well as the scheduling of the trains themselves. Eichmann was also responsible for the supplies including Zyklon-B to the Concentration Camps and Gas Chambers. While he pleaded that he was only a minor bureaucrat, he was sentenced to death for war crimes in Israel in the early 60s for his instrumental role in planning and supplying the substance of the genocide..

Domestic & Foreign Travel

Most domestic and foreign travel was suspended in the war. In the early 30s, the railways of Europe became a source of aliyah , or flight to refuge for Jews wealthy enough, famous enough, or with proper connections to escape the Third Reich's persecutions. As the war began domestic travel except for emergencies became almost non-existent for the public both for safety concerns and because of the taxing of available resources for the war effort. Jews remaining in Germany who were still free were, of course not allowed to travel.

Deportation:The Final Solution

When we talk about trains in the Shoah, most of think of the trains which were used for transporting the Jews to the Killing and Slavery Centers the Germans had established all over Europe..

Early Flight to Escape Persecution: Aliyah

As the 1930s dawned and Hitler rose to power, many saw the dark cloud on the horizon and the ones who could sought to escape the onset of the Third Reich. As Hitler came to power in 1933, he immediately began to remove people from positions in the Arts and Academics and a new 'anti-intellectualism' clouded the sky. Persons such as Sigmund and Anna Freud, Karl Barth, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern all took flight, most often the trains were a means out of the country. Within a very few years, trains and other forms of transportation were restricted and flight became impossible, especially for the Jews. Since those fleeing to America were gone early, the major form of escape to other European countries and cultural and neutral centers such as Zurich, London, Paris and Vienna was by rail although the doors closed quickly. Many artists and musicians fled to Vienna in 1933-1935, but by the Anschluss in 1938, most had to flee again. At that point, travel by rail in Europe was retricted as the onset of war took precedent.

Vatican Ratline

As the end of the war near, the Nazis knew that the Allies might take Berlin but they still had a psychotic, pseudo-messianic fervor to 'never-say-die' and actually escalated the war despite warnings about destroying Germany. It was the warning of His high command and Hitler's refusal to consider the warning, that many in the Abwehr began to make secretive communiques to to begin negotiations for the end of the war fearing destruction. At this point, Hitler and Himmler and others begin to think in terms of getting Nazi wealth out of Germany and possibly ruling from elsewhere in exile.

Love can conquer, Love can Kill, Or walk boldly up a hill,To a waiting truck or train,Was their little hymn insane?