Sonderzüge in den Tod
Special Trains to Death is the title of a traveling exhibition that commemorates the deportation of hundreds of thousands of people by the former Reichsbahn in the Nazi concentration and extermination camps. It was shown in France in 2006 and 2008 changed in Germany, especially in stations.
History and concept of the exhibition
In Germany, the exhibition was opened on 23 January 2008 Potsdamer Platz on the mezzanine level of the station. Subsequently, the exhibition hall at the main station ( Saale) was seen. Between 28 March and 10 April she was seen at the Schwerin Hauptbahnhof. Until 12 May, the exhibition in Wittenberg was a guest, from May 18 to June 15 followed by the main station Münster. He then worked in Cologne, Frankfurt, Dresden and Munich. From 14 to 26 November 2008, she was shown in the Mannheim Main Station. By the end of 2008, around 80,000 visitors were expected. 2009 should be continued for the traveling exhibition and awarded free of charge to interested cities. The first stop was in January 2009 Hanau. From 22 January 2009, the exhibition in Chemnitz was shown from 15 February at the Jewish Museum in Dorsten.
The in collaboration with Beate and Serge Klarsfeld conceived by Deutsche Bahn, together with a citizens' initiative exhibition integrates elements from the exhibition Enfants juifs Déportés de France, which was shown over three years at stations of the SNCF. 15 of a total of 40 information boards based on this collection.
By April 2008, attended, according to estimates by Deutsche Bahn AG, around 30,000 people the exhibition.
Discourse about the exhibition
The exhibition went ahead, inter alia, a public dispute between the Klarsfeld and DB AG, after the company had refused to show the exhibition in France shown on German stations.
In an interview in November 2006, Deutsche Bahn CEO Hartmut Mehdorn justified its rejection of the traveling exhibition: " In stations prevails haste and hurry. There are no places for such a serious subject as the Holocaust. There can not be such an issue with any serious, in-depth referral. We know our traffic stations and the people who reside there. I am even inclined to say that if you would do it but that would be counterproductive., Shock and go ' no longer works. ".
He also said that the German railway had " compared with other large companies to exemplary busy with [ their ] past. " He pointed to one of 200,000 people a year visited the permanent exhibition at the DB Museum in Nuremberg, participation in the compensation fund for former forced laborers, the elucidation of their own apprentices and the support of the film The last train. Klarsfeld had wanted the company " dictate their exhibition". After the group had refused to do so, you have learned from the newspaper, the company trying to displace the confrontation with the Nazi period. Mehdorn announced the creation of a traveling exhibition that should be shown near train stations.
The establishment of a traveling exhibition at stations to the deportations was agreed between the Federal Minister of Transport and Mehdorn on 1 December 2006.
Reception
- Fever (novel), especially pp. 145ff. ( Ed, 2006): ... if more quotas can be transferred from the free zone in the occupied zone in order to fill the information requested by the German convoys. To fulfill the quota 7000 Israelites have to be rounded up. A maximum of deportations must before 1 November (1942 ), because there are after this date there is no rail capacity from Drancy to the east longer available ... In addition, there are not enough foreign Jews to the rate of 1,000 Jews per convoy to. meet For this reason, the convoys are filled with French Jews from the internment camps.