CALL FOR PAPERS | TRAINS
OF DEATH – RAILWAY TRANSPORTS TO THE GERMAN DEATH CAMPS. STATE OF KNOWLEDGE
AND RESEARCH POSTULATES
Sobibór Memorial
From the very beginning of World War II, it were the German railways (Reichsbahn and Ostbahn) that – together with the railway companies in the Third Reich’s allied states – served as the primary tool in organising deportations and displacements. Several million Jews from all over Europe were deported to extermination and concentration camps by trains in the years 1942-1944. Railway transport was fundamental for the mechanisms and pace of the extermination of Jews. The awareness about this subject in Poland, however, remains insufficient despite the passage of time.
The aim of this conference held by the State Museum at Majdanek is to broaden the knowledge about the logistical aspect of deportations. The range of topics includes:
• The utilisation of railway during the deportations of Jews from the General Government and the Polish areas incorporated into the Third Reich; transports to the extermination camps in Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka, Chełmno on the river Ner (Kulmhof), and Auschwitz-Birkenau
• The organisation of deportations of Jews from the Third Reich and occupied states
The demeanours of railway personnel members – employed both in the central offices and locally (including the railwaymen working at stations adjacent to extermination camps)
• The utilisation of railway and its infrastructure in the plunder of the victims’ property
• The reconnaissance of the resistance in the field of transports’ courses
• The presentation of any sources relevant to the discussed subject: documents, post-war trials and investigations, iconography, etc.
The conference is addressed to scholars working within the research scope of broadly understood role of railway during World War II. Please send abstracts (max. 1,000 characters including spaces) together with your biographical notes to: [email protected]
Final registration deadline: 15 March 2025.
Conference venue: Museum and Memorial in Sobibór.
Conference language: Polish and English (live booth translation).
We reimburse travel costs and provide the participants with board and accommodation.
We invite historians, researchers, regionalists, and students, for our academic conference – “Trains of Death – Railway Transports to the German Death Camps. State of Knowledge and Research Postulates – that is going to take place at the Museum in Memorial in Sobibór on 8-10 September.
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