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All-in-all, there were estimated up to 20 to 30 million victims of the Nazi racist policies (and slave labor policies for factories) who were transported on the Reichsbahn in the late 1930s and 1940s.
Some were transported several times across the continent before they eventually succumbed to death due to overwork, or were simply murdered.
Interestingly and sadly, the step-son of the Reichsbahn is the Bundesbahn (DB) and each month the Bundesbahn charges the founders and promoters of this memorial train some 14,000 Euros to transport and permit the exposition of the TRAIN TO REMEMBERING to be shown to schools and the general public.
April's bill is for over 15,000 Euros.
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It is probably appropriate that rather than focusing solely on the victims of the Reichsbahn trains to death and labor camps around the continent, the promoters of the TRAIN TO REMEMBERING provide a whole car of the train for realization of how hard it has been to even reach the stage of public discourse and confrontation with the Deutschebundesbahn (DB) to permit and indirectly support commemoration of the criminality of the Reichsbahn and Reichstransport leadership of the Nazi Era.
For example, up until 1985 the Bundesbahn in Essen Germany had a conference room with a bust of Julius Doerpmueller who was not freed until 1949 from the Americans and their allies in the ENTNAZIFICATION Process. (He was released with misgivings because he refused to repent at all for his acts.) Doerpmueller was the head of the Reichsbahn for the war effort.
This man, Doerpmueller had joined the Nazi leadership in the late 1930s and was seen as an opportunist by most of his countrymen. He therefore oversaw the logistics and implementation of the ENDLOESUNG (Final Solution) for the Jewish Question.
Many Germans use the DB (train often) and many are not happy with the national train service not helping to finance memorials to the Train Transports of the Nazi era.
Here is a link (in German which reflects the disappointment and discontent of some of the Germans who have visited the exhibition in southern Germany.
http://www.zug-der-erinnerung.eu/appelle.html
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I hope that public pressure can get behind a more helpful approach to commemoration by the relatively wealthy (DB) German train system. Children who ride trains often will surely be able to relate to the stories of the Holocaust and other anti-human activities by visiting such a train.
http://www.zug-der-erinnerung.eu/generationen.html
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NOTE: The DB is planning to go public on the stock exchange in the near future, by the way.
http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml
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The Deutschebahn or German Railway is one of the better run and more profitable railways in the world, yet, little is done to have its train stations or its leadership recognize any linkages in memory related to the Holocaust or slave labor under the Nazi Regime in the 1930s and 1940s. As a train is in Wiesbaden to help raise awareness among children and general public this week, the dots need to be connected.
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