Book Review of
Hitler’s Death Trains
The Role of the Reichsbahn in the Final Solution
Author: Ian Baxter
Pen & Sword Books Images of War Series
ISBN: 978-1-39904-008-2
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2023
MSRP: $26.95
ISBN: 978-1-39904-008-2
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2023
MSRP: $26.95
Editor's note:
History is complex and often ugly and while this book is not one of our usual subjects it is history that needs to be written about so that the light of Truth may shine on it and expose it that it may never happen again.
History is complex and often ugly and while this book is not one of our usual subjects it is history that needs to be written about so that the light of Truth may shine on it and expose it that it may never happen again.
HISTORY:
Literature highlighting the horrors of the Holocaust has concentrated on the incarceration of Jews and others deemed hostile to Hitler’s Reich in ghettos and their fact in the death camps.
Little coverage has been given to the role played by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German National Railway). In fact, the success of the ‘Final Solution’ was dependent on the efficient utilization of the vast train network of Germany and the Nazi occupied territories. Without this it would have been impossible for Hitler’s henchmen to transport their victims in suitable number to the extermination camps, such as Auschwitz.
While conditions on the trains were invariably inhuman, many Jews were forced to fund their own deportations through deposits paid to the SS towards “The settlement in the East programme”. Although these ‘death trains’ competed for valuable track space with Nazi war effort equipment. The importance of the extermination programme perversely prevailed.
THE BOOK:
Pen & Sword books is based in the U.K.
This book is soft-cover of 132 pages (2 pages blank) in 7 ½” x 9 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows 4 black and white photos.
The one at the top is of 4 German officers standing together in a train yard, near tracks that have a box car on them. A motorcyclist is in the background.
Below, reading left to right are photos of Jewish women and families.
The back cover of the book shows 2 black and white photos of Jews being marched to box cars.
This book holds many photos of the trains, box cars and live and dead holocaust victims.
There is a photo of SS-Obersturmfuhrer Adolf Eichmann, who was head of the extermination program.
The reader should be aware that there are some very disturbing photos.
This book will appeal to military historians.
Recommended.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample.
Casemate in the N. American distributor of Pen & Sword books and all their titles can be viewed on Casemate’ s web site or by using the post card inserted in the book to get more info about Pen & Sword books.
Casemate's website is:
Literature highlighting the horrors of the Holocaust has concentrated on the incarceration of Jews and others deemed hostile to Hitler’s Reich in ghettos and their fact in the death camps.
Little coverage has been given to the role played by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German National Railway). In fact, the success of the ‘Final Solution’ was dependent on the efficient utilization of the vast train network of Germany and the Nazi occupied territories. Without this it would have been impossible for Hitler’s henchmen to transport their victims in suitable number to the extermination camps, such as Auschwitz.
While conditions on the trains were invariably inhuman, many Jews were forced to fund their own deportations through deposits paid to the SS towards “The settlement in the East programme”. Although these ‘death trains’ competed for valuable track space with Nazi war effort equipment. The importance of the extermination programme perversely prevailed.
THE BOOK:
Pen & Sword books is based in the U.K.
This book is soft-cover of 132 pages (2 pages blank) in 7 ½” x 9 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows 4 black and white photos.
The one at the top is of 4 German officers standing together in a train yard, near tracks that have a box car on them. A motorcyclist is in the background.
Below, reading left to right are photos of Jewish women and families.
The back cover of the book shows 2 black and white photos of Jews being marched to box cars.
This book holds many photos of the trains, box cars and live and dead holocaust victims.
There is a photo of SS-Obersturmfuhrer Adolf Eichmann, who was head of the extermination program.
The reader should be aware that there are some very disturbing photos.
This book will appeal to military historians.
Recommended.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample.
Casemate in the N. American distributor of Pen & Sword books and all their titles can be viewed on Casemate’ s web site or by using the post card inserted in the book to get more info about Pen & Sword books.
Casemate's website is: