Beginning in 1943, children of Jews in France were brought to the Drancy train station outside of Paris. From there they traveled through Saarbruecken, Mannheim, Frankfurt, Fulda, and Dresden – then on to Auschwitz were they perished. The transportation and logistics were provided by the Deutsche Reichsbahn. Now German-Foreign-Policy.com is reporting (via Ost:Blog) that the Deutsche Bahn AG – successor to the Reichsbahn – refuses to participate in a commemoration of the 11,000 children who were transported to Auschwitz. Why? The DB AG’s resources are committed to the World Soccer Championship in 2006.
More than sixty years after the death transports of Jewish children to
the Auschwitz extermination camp, the Deutsche Bahn AG (German Railroad
Corp.) refuses to allow commemoration of the murdered children in the
former transit stations of the deportation trains. A decision sent from
Berlin, to this effect was received by the French organization ,,Fils et Filles des Deportés Juifs de France"/FFDJF
(Sons and Daughters of Deported Jews of France) in December. The
organization had solicited the Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG) for space for a
photo exhibition about the fate of 11,000 children deported by train. … The transfer
logistics of the death transports were assumed by the Deutsche
Reichsbahn, of which, today, the DB AG is the successor. As the DB AG
explains in a written statement, in the possession of
german-foreign-policy.com, the DB AG ,,lacks" both the necessary ,,personnel and the financial resources" to undertake the proposed exhibition. ,,The enterprise is sponsoring the Soccer World Championship 2006, with lots of money" and is using implausible excuses, Ms. Beate Klarsfeld, member of the FFDJF says in an interview with german-foreign-policy.com.
In her interview with German-Foreign-Policy Beate Klarsfeld cotrasts the reaction of the German group to the response of the French Railway System.
Ich vergleiche die Reaktion der Deutschen Bahn mal mit der Reaktion der
französischen Staatsbahnen SNCF. Die SNCF hat uns vor drei Jahren ihre
Bahnhöfe zur Verfügung gestellt, und zwar zum 60. Jahrestag der
Deportation der Juden aus Frankreich, die 1942 begann. Wir haben in 18
großen Bahnhöfen drei Wochen lang die Wanderausstellung über jüdische
Kinder gezeigt, die aus Frankreich deportiert wurden. Die SNCF hat uns
die Bahnhofshallen geöffnet, hat uns die Tafeln zur Verfügung gestellt,
wir hatten Tag und Nacht einen Sicherheitsdienst, und auch der
Transport der Ausstellungsmaterialien von einem Bahnhof zum nächsten
wurde mit Lastwagen der SNCF durchgeführt. Die Franzosen konnten dies.
Jetzt kommen von der Deutschen Bahn ganz andere Reaktionen: Wir haben
kein Geld, wir haben keinen Platz. Das ist sehr bemerkenswert.
You can read the open letter by German historians and concerned citizens to the Deutsche Bahn AG protesting the decision to put sports ahead of a memorial exhibit here. The events of this week demostrate what happens when we succumb to historical amnesia.
