This open access library edition is supported by Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. The Train Journey This open access library edition is supported by Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. Studies on War and Genocide General Editors: Omer Bartov, Brown University; A. Dirk Moses, University of Sydney Volume 1 Volume 8 The Massacre in History Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Edited by Mark Levene and Compromise in the Holocaust and Penny Roberts Its Aftermath Edited by Jonathan Petropoulos Volume 2 and John K. Roth National Socialist Extermination Policies: Contemporary German Volume 9 Perspectives and Controversies Robbery and Restitution: The Conflict Edited by Ulrich Herbert over Jewish Property in Europe Edited by M. Dean, C. Goschler, Volume 3 and P. Ther War of Extermination: The German Military in World War II, 1941/44 Volume 10 Edited by Hannes Heer and Exploitation, Resettlement, Mass Klaus Naumann Murder: Political and Economic Planning for German Occupation Volume 4 Policy in the Soviet Union, 1940–1941 In God’s Name: Genocide and Religion in the Twentieth Century Alex J. Kay Edited by Omer Bartov and Phyllis Mack Volume 12 Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Volume 5 Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance Hitler’s War in the East, 1941–1945 in World History Rolf-Dieter Müller and Edited by A. Dirk Moses Gerd R. Ueberschär Volume 13 Volume 6 The Train Journey: Transit, Captivity, Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier and Witnessing in the Holocaust Violence and Stolen Indigenous Simone Gigliotti Children in Australian History Edited by A. Dirk Moses Volume 7 Networks of Nazi Persecution: Bureaucracy, Business, and the Organization of the Holocaust Edited by Gerald D. Feldman and Wolfgang Seibel This open access library edition is supported by Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. THE TRAIN JOURNEY Transit, Captivity, and Witnessing in the Holocaust Simone Gigliotti Berghahn Books NEW YORK • O XFORD This open access library edition is supported by Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. Published in 2009 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com © 2009, 2010 Simone Gigliotti First paperback edition published in 2010 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gigliotti, Simone. The train journey : transit, captivity, and witnessing in the Holocaust / Simone Gigliotti. p. cm. — (Studies on war and genocide ; v. 13) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 978-1-57181-268-1 (hbk) —ISBN 978-1-84545-785-3 (pbk) 1. World War, 1939–1945—Prisoners and prisons—Psychological aspects. 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Psychological aspects. 3. World War, 1939–1945—Personal narratives, Jewish. 4. Railroad trains. 5. Prisoners of war—Germany. 6. Prisoners of war—Austria. 7. Political prisoners—Germany. 8. Political prisoners—Austria. 9. World War, 1939–1945—Concentration camps. I. Title. D805.A2G46 2009 940.53'18—dc22 2009012809 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Cover photo: “Auschwitz Tracks” © Simone Gigliotti An electronic version of this book is freely available thanks to the support of librar- ies working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at knowledgeun- latched.org. is work is published subject to a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No Derivatives 4.0 International license. e terms of the licence can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. For use beyond those covered in the licence contact Berghahn Books. This open access library edition is supported by Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. CONTENTS List of Illustrations vi Acknowledgments vii Chapter 1 Introduction: A Hidden Holocaust in Trains 1 Chapter 2 Resettlement: Deportees as the Freight of the Final Solution 36 Chapter 3 Ghetto Departures: The Emplotment of Experience 60 Chapter 4 Immobilization in “Cattle Cars” 90 Chapter 5 Sensory Witnessing and Railway Shock: Disorders of Vision and Experience 128 Chapter 6 Camp Arrivals: The Failed Resettlement 169 Chapter 7 Conclusion: Memory Routes and Destinations 203 Epilogue: Retelling Train Stories 216 Bibliography 224 Index 241 – v – This open access library edition is supported by Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. ILLUSTRATIONS 1.1 “To the Umschlagplatz, 1943” 8 1.2 Deportation, Warsaw Ghetto, 1943 9 1.3 Deportation, Lodz Ghetto, 1942 9 1.4 Jewish victim killed during the “Gehsperre,” Lodz Ghetto, 1942 10 1.5 Jewish victims killed during a deportation action, Siedlce, 1942 11 1.6 Sinti child on train en route from Westerbork transit camp, 1944 13 1.7 Death train, Dachau, 1945 17 4.1 View through the freight car, Permanent Exhibition, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 91 6.1 Train station, Treblinka, 1942–1943 183 6.2 Victims’ shoes, Majdanek, 1944 194 6.3 Photographs belonging to deported Jews, Majdanek, 1944 194 6.4 Confi scated luggage from the arriving transport of Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia to Auschwitz, 1944 195 6.5 Auschwitz women inmates sort through shoes from the transport of Hungarian Jews, 1944 196 6.6 Suitcases of inmates found after liberation, Auschwitz, 1945 197 6.7 Valises near the freight car, Permanent Exhibition, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 197 E.1 Memorial, Wittenbergplatz U-Bahn, Berlin 217 E.2 Memorial to deported Jews, Grunewald train station, Berlin 218 E.3 Mass Grave, Srebrenica 219 E.4 Podgorze ghetto memorial, Krakow 220 E.5 Auschwitz II-Birkenau 221 – vi – This open access library edition is supported by Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ne might think that writing a book on train journeys in the Holocaust Owould be a reliable conversation stopper. That has not been the case. Who would have that the trauma of “cattle cars” would be enduringly fas- cinating and appealing to so many different people? The anecdotal history behind the history of this book remains unwritten. For now. Colleagues from universities in Australia were the first audiences for the topic of train journeys. I owe Mark Baker, Tony Barta, Krystyna Duszniak, Donna- Lee Frieze, Roger Hillman, Konrad Kwiet, and Steven Welch much gratitude for their advice and input on the themes of trains, survivors, and writing. Tony Barta and Roger Hillman were particularly vigilant in tracking the book’s progress once I was immersed in writing it, and both read draft chapters, as did Omer Bartov, Berel Lang, Dirk Moses, and Alan Rosen. I am very grate- ful to all of them for their detailed commentary and encouragement. The primary archival research for this book was undertaken while I was a Charles H. Revson Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (CAHS), the research institute of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington D.C. During that stay, I was welcomed by Wendy Lower (former director of the Visiting Scholars Program) and Paul Shapiro (Director of the CAHS), and I benefited from the counsel of several senior scholars in residence: Berel Lang, Gerhard Weinberg, and Lenore Weitzman. During my time there, I was also fortunate to learn from a wonderful group of scholars that included Hilary Earl, Robert Kuwalek, Phillip Rutherford, and Anna Ziebinska. In August 2002, I took up a temporary appointment at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. I could not have anticipated a more profound experience of ambivalence and ultimately, growth and professional reorientation of my interests. Jamaica has complex and fascinating histories of displacement and dispossession, histories that were inevitably recalled in the classroom whenever I taught the Holocaust to Caribbean students. James Robertson and Swithin Wilmot were welcoming and generous colleagues, – vii – This open access library edition is supported by Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. viii Acknowledgments and were very supportive of my research into the transit histories of German and Jewish refugees in the region. Additional visits to the USHMM in Washington, DC, allowed further exploration of train journeys and transit. In 2003, I co-coordinated a Sum- mer Research Workshop on “Interpreting Testimony,” and in 2007, par- ticipated in another Summer Research Workshop, “Geographies of the Holocaust.” Both workshops generated further avenues of research and val- idated a geographical and socio-cultural approach to journeys and transit. Robert Ehrenreich and Suzanne Brown-Fleming of the University Programs Division at the CAHS supported both workshops, and Tim Cole, along with other participants in the “Geographies of the Holocaust” Workshop, provided a benchmark of intellectual collaboration. At Victoria University, Wellington, I have shared my ideas and writings on train journeys with undergraduate students in my Holocaust courses and with departmental colleagues, particularly Kate Hunter. Their collective input has been invaluable. Numerous grants from the Faculty of Humani- ties and Social Sciences provided relief from teaching, and funds to cover the permission fees and reproduction costs of photos. Caroline Waddell from the Photo Archives at the USHMM was especially effi cient in facilitat- ing the supply of historical images. I am also grateful to the University of Minnesota Libraries, Sovfoto/Eastfoto, and United Press International for permission to reproduce photos from the Majdanek concentration camp. All credits for the use of photos are acknowledged throughout the text. I am indebted to Omer Bartov and Dirk Moses for accepting my contribution to the War and Genocide series. At Berghahn Books, I am deeply appreciative to Marion Berghahn, for her ongoing support and faith in the project, and to the production team, particularly Ann Przyzycki.