Scholarly Conference

“Trains of Death – Railway Transports to German Extermination Camps. Current Knowledge and Research Proposals”

A group of people in an educational room listening to a debate, with laptops and electronic equipment used for broadcasting in the foreground.
In the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór we hosted an academic conference entitled “Trains of Death – Railway Transports to German Extermination Camps. Current Knowledge and Research Proposals”. On 8-10 September , researchers, historians, and museum curators discussed the key role of railways in the mechanism and pace of the extermination of Jews. Between 1942 and 1944, several million Jews from all over Europe were deported by train to death camps and concentration camps.

“40 Years after ‘Shoah’. The Holocaust in the light of Claude Lanzmann’s Documentary”

The conference opened on 8 September 8 with a debate entitled 40 Years After ‘Shoah’. The Holocaust in the Light of Claude Lanzmann's Documentary. The panelists: Bartosz Kwieciński (Jagiellonian University), Katarzyna Person (Warsaw Ghetto Museum), and Piotr Witek (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University)—discussed the artistic significance of the film and its impact on shaping European memory of the Holocaust. They also addressed the criticism that the documentary received, including in Poland. The discussion was moderated by Tomasz Kranz, the Director of the State Museum at Majdanek, who opened the proceedings by emphasising: “We want to make people aware that the victims' ordeal began much earlier – in the places of deportation, from where the transports departed.”

Four people, three men and a woman, are sitting at a table, with graphics in the background on the screen: panel discussion, 40 years after the Shoah The Holocaust in the light of the document (the rest is illegible)

Watch the debate “40 Years after ‘Shoah’. The Holocaust in the light of Claude Lanzmann’s Documentary”

Lectures

Marcin Przegiętka (IPN), Models of cooperation between the Reich Railways and the Eastern Railway and the SS and police in the transport of deportees to the General Government and prisoners to concentration camps and extermination camps
Jan Hlavinka (Holocaust Documentation Centre in Bratislava), From Slovakia to District Lublin: The Mass Deportations of Slovak Jews during Operation Reinhardt
Jakub Strýček (Slezské univerzity v Opavě), Organization and course of deportations from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to the Lublin District
Dariusz Libionka (Majdanek Museum), Recognition of transports to the death camps of “Operation Reinhardt” and Auschwitz-Birkenau by the intelligence structures of the Polish Underground State
Andrzej Grzegorczyk (Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism in Łódź), The role of the railways in the Wartheland during the deportation of Jews to the extermination camp in Chełmno nad Nerem
Bartłomiej Grzanka (Museum of the former German extermination camp Kulmhof in Chełmno nad Nerem), “After a short ride, we arrive at the KULMHOF station.” The role of the Sompolno–Dąbie section of the Kujawska Commuter Railway in transporting victims to the German extermination camp in Chełmno
Stefan Michał Marcinkiewicz (University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn), “PJ-39” (December 16, 1942) and “RSHA Augustow” (February 3, 1943). Death trains from Prostki
Jakub Chmielewski (Majdanek Museum), Railway personnel and the Holocaust in the General Government – preliminary source reconnaissance
Jacob Flaws (Kean University), Death Traffic: The Railway Witnesses of Operation Reinhard
Marta Marzańska (Yad Vashem), Discussion of Yad Vashem's The Deportation of Jews Project, using the example of transports to Sobibór
Anna Remiszewska, Monika Samuel (Treblinka Museum), Railway workers from Treblinka and the nearby camps
Agnieszka Kajczyk (Jewish Historical Institute), Photographs and films of the deportation of Jews

One of the goals of the conference was to broaden knowledge about the logistics of deportation, which, despite the passage of time, remains insufficient. This goal will also be served by a post-conference volume, which is scheduled for publication next year.

A group of people standing in front of an illuminated display case in a dark room

"Trains of Death" Scholarly Conference

  • A group of people in a classroom, with empty chairs in the front row.
  • Four people, three men and a woman, are sitting at a table, and an elderly man is speaking into a microphone.
  • A middle-aged man with glasses and a beard is standing and speaking into a microphone.
  • A man in a beige jacket stands at the lectern and speaks into the microphone, with a presentation in the background.
  • A group of people at the exhibition, an old sign with the inscription SOBIBOR visible in the background.