Railway Personnel

1. Railway
Personnel
Historical Background and Source Discussion
Suitable for Ages 15 and above

2. Rationale
The killing method used in the six
extermination centers was based on the
principle of bringing the victims to the
killing site, rather than the killers coming
to seek the victims where they resided.
Jews had to be deported from all over
Europe to the extermination camps in
Poland, where most were killed within
hours of their arrival. A vast system of
transportation had to be set up in order
to implement these deportations.
Skopje, Yugoslavia, Bulgarian policemen standing
between two deportation trains, March 1943
(Yad Vashem Photo Archives, 92AO6)

3. Rationale
This determination on the part of the Nazis to ascertain that Europe “be
combed through” for every last Jew is one manifestation of the
uniqueness of the Holocaust: Nazi ideology was based on a fantasy in
which the Jews, wherever they might be, posed a mortal threat to the
Aryan race. The intricate system that was set up for the transportation
of Jews to the killing centers from all over Europe highlights the cool-
headed, premeditated nature of the Nazi murder of the Jews.

4. Rationale
The designers of Nazi policy strove for a “clean”, orderly and efficient
extermination of the Jews, rather than eruptions of violent hatred.
Werner Best, for example, a leading Nazi intellectual, spoke of the need
to kill without hating. In practice, of course, the murder was
accompanied by brutality and cruelty.

5. Rationale
The involvement of professionals, such as railway officials, raises deep
questions. The Nazi regime seemed to encounter no difficulties in
enlisting people not necessarily committed to Nazi ideology and
transforming them into efficient elements in the killing apparatus. The
role played by modern technology in the killing process raises further
questions as to the nature of modernity, the modern state and
technology.

6. Historical Background
The railway played a crucial role in the
implementation of the “Final Solution”. The
organization and coordination of transports was
a complicated matter, especially in a wartime
setting. With the growing shortage of supplies
and the priority given to military transports, the
allocation of trains for the deportation of the
Jews was not always easily accomplished.
Skopje, Yugoslavia, Deportation of Jews from Thrace,
Greece, March 1943
213/42

7. Historical Background
It took the close co-operation of all agencies – the
SS, the civilian officials of the German Railway, the
Ministry of Transportation and, in some cases, the
Foreign Office – to overcome the difficulties and
to allow the transports to run so efficiently that
hundreds of thousands of Jews could be deported
to their death.
Birkenau, Poland, Arrival of a transport to the
platform, 27/5/1944
268/3

8. Historical Background
The Nazis had a master plan for
implementing their racial theory in such a
manner as to facilitate a demographic
reorganization of Europe. Germans and
Poles were to be resettled. Jews were to be
concentrated in the East, and later, after the
decision to murder them was made, they
were to be deported to killing centers.
Bielefeld, Germany, A German policemen
supervising the boarding of the deported Jews to
the deportation train, 1941
(Yad Vashem Photo Archives 1286/1)

9. Historical Background
In January, 1942, representatives from a
broad range of German ministries and
military and civilian agencies were called to a
meeting in a villa at Wannsee, on the
outskirts of Berlin. Here they coordinated the
enormous undertaking of murdering
Europe’s Jews. Heydrich, chief of the Reich
Security Main Office, said that Europe “was
to be combed through from West to East in
the course of the practical implementation of
the Final Solution”. The officials at the
meeting then proceeded to discuss the
practical details.
Wannsee, Berlin, Germany, The Villa in Which the
Wannsee Conference Was Conducted (Yad Vashem
Archives 4613/432)

10. Historical Background
In the spring and summer of 1942, the
extermination facilities were completed, and the
deportations to the extermination camps
commenced. Nazi Germany employed modern
technology and exploited Europe’s extensive
transportation networks to deport millions of Jews
from all over the continent to the East. Jews from
Paris and Amsterdam, from Salonika and Warsaw,
were rounded up, packed into box-wagons and
shipped hundreds of miles across Europe, only for
the large majority of them to be killed upon arrival
at their destination.
Salonika, Greece, Jews being taken to the city in
wagons during a deportation, 1943
(Yad Vashem Photo Archives 4617/4)

11. Historical Background
The dehumanization, degradation and suffering inflicted upon the victims was
tremendous. The Jews were shipped like cattle in sealed box-wagons. They suffered
from freezing cold in winter and unbearable heat in summer. The wagons were tightly
packed, their occupants locked inside with no sanitary facilities, no fresh air, no water,
and only the food they had brought with them. Once they were on the train, they
were deprived of any freedom of choice and control over their lives. They were not
told where they were going, how long the journey would last, or what would happen
once they reached their final destination. The trains were frequently sidetracked to
allow other trains to pass. This meant that the deportees spent many days locked in
the trains. On arrival, there were many corpses in the train cars.

12. Testimony
“Over 100 people were packed into our cattle car…. It is impossible to describe the
tragic situation in our airless, closed car. Everyone tried to push his way to a small
air opening. I found a crack in one of the floorboards into which I pushed my nose
to a get a little air. The stench in the cattle car was unbearable…. After some
time, the train suddenly stopped. A guard entered the car. He had come to rob us.
He took everything that had not been well hidden: money, watches, valuables….
Water! We pleaded with the railroad workers. We would pay them well. I paid
500 Zlotys and received a cup of water…

13. Testimony
…As I began to drink, a woman, whose child had fainted, attacked me. She was
determined to make me leave her a little water. I did leave a bit of water at the
bottom of the cup, and watched the child drink. The situation in the cattle car was
deteriorating. The car was sweltering in the sun. The men lay half-naked. Some of
the women lay in their undergarments. People struggled to get some air, and
some no longer moved…. The train reached the camp. Many lay inert on the cattle
car floor. Some were no longer alive.”
- From the testimony of Avraham Kaszepicki, deported from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka
extermination camp in the summer of 1942.

14. The Railway Personnel
The deportations were initiated and organized by the SS. Though the plans and
ideas came from the hard-core Nazi functionaries who were motivated by
ideology and who enthusiastically supported the anti-Jewish policy, many more
people from all parts of German society and all state organs were needed. The
deportation required the participation of many professional railway personnel,
from the top executive down to the last railway engineer. Some of the railway
personnel dealt with the transports from their offices. They did not have to see
the deportation with their own eyes. Others drove the trains or worked in the
railway stations where the trains were loaded or passed by on their way to the
East.
Some of those railway people later explained the role they played as they saw it.
The statements were made during a trial in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1964.

15. The Railway Personnel
Walter Stier, former official in the timetable planning of the German
railway in Eastern Europe: “I dealt with these matters only from my
desk. My sole activity was technically taking care of train
timetables.”
Hans Pitsch, station-master in Bialystok, Poland: “I made appropriate
reports on the corpses found at the tracks in my jurisdiction. The
reports then were submitted to the management. By this I had
fulfilled my duty.”

16. The Railway Personnel
Egon Weber, railway engineer who had driven trains from Bialystok to
Treblinka: “I heard the shootings along the train, but never saw
them. I never turned my head and looked back. I always looked
forward.”
Eduard Kryscak, member of the railway personnel that accompanied
the transports:
“I did not see anything of the loading of the Jews at the Bialystok
railway station. I was totally immersed in filling out the many
documents for the transport, and had no time to observe what was
going on around me.”

17. Questions
Like many other bureaucrats, the railway personnel had not been selected for
this job because of their commitment to Nazi ideology, but rather for their
professional skills.
•What could the reasons that made them participate in the operation have been?

18. Questions
Eduard Kryscak claimed: “I was totally immersed in filling out the many
documents for the transport, and had no time to observe what was going on
around me”.
· Is it likely that they were so immersed in their work that they had no idea of
the implications and results of their tasks? Do you believe this was possible?
· To what extent would you suggest that this disregard or lack of awareness is
itself wrong?

19. Questions
Zygmunt Bauman wrote that the Holocaust was possible because of modern
thinking, organizational methods and technology. This permitted man to control
his environment as well as to change it drastically. Technology and progress are
usually considered beneficial to humanity.
•Might these aspects of modernity in fact pose inherent dangers? What can be
done to protect us from the misuse of modern technology and organizational
methods?