Boxcar Horrors In The Holocaust

Boxcar Horrors 

" The journey to the camps began with a train ride, with Jews packed into pitch-black rail cars, with no room to sit down, no bathrooms, no hope." (Lombardi). This is a quote from a book a man wrote about his time in Auschwitz when he was young. Up to 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust, an awful event led by Adolf Hitler and his army based in Germany, the Nazis. One of the horrible things about the Holocaust was the boxcars taking the victims to the camps. Some things that made the boxcars in the Holocaust so bad are; the size of the boxcars, the conditions in the cars, and the deaths that occurred on the journey to the concentration camps. 

The cars that the Nazi's transported the victims in were not big enough to hold all of them. The dimensions of a boxcar that was used to transport the holocaust prisoners had the dimensions of 26'2" by 8'10" and a height of 7'4".

The average boxcar in Hungary, which is similar to the ones used to transport the victims, is even smaller. The recommended maximum amount of people to transport in one car was 40 people. At the arrival of the cars at the concentration camps, some of the boxcars had up to 100 people. This is over double the recommended amount, and many of the cars weren't made for transporting people. "In size, these cars were of the small European type, which, when used for the movement of troops, would never accommodate more than 40 men. Nevertheless, the Army officials in charge of this camp advised us that there were 50 of these cars in this 1 train and that at least 100 of these civilians had been jammed into each car...." (45th Infantry Division). This is the reaction of a man in his first view of the cars rolling into the camp while he was rescuing the prisoners of the concentration camp. (45th Infantry Division); (German Railways and the Holocaust) 

In addition to being cramped, there were no accommodations to help the victims. They had no food, water, or way to dispose of their waste. “Most deported Jews endured the torturous journey to death camps in ordinary freight cars under conditions of starvation, extreme overcrowding, and horrible sanitation.” (The Holocaust: Railway Car). A lot of the time victims were in the cars for weeks at a time, and stuck behind crossroads for days without being let out. Many people died of dehydration or starvation. "We're locked in!" a woman screamed. "My God, we'll suffocate." Everyone began to scream then, Hannah with them... It was pretty dark inside the car, with only small patches of light where the boards did not quite fit together. And it was airless. And hot... Somewhere a child cried out that she had to go to the bathroom. A little while later, a smell announced that she had... Just then the car shook and everybody screamed.... The stench in the crowded boxcar was overwhelming, a powerful stew of human perspiration and fear and the smell of children being sick.... Hannah thought how lucky she was to be near a pocket of fresh air. Most of the others were not so fortunate. "(Yolen) By the time the cars got to the camps, the dead bodies covered the floor in a lot of the boxcars. People were constantly screaming while within them, and it stunk with the scent of sweat and vomit. A quote from "Night" by Elie Wiesel " The journey to the camps began with a train ride, with Jews packed into pitch-black rail cars, with no room to sit down, no bathrooms, no hope." (Lombardi).  Many victims, and even people who just saw the boxcars, described the conditions of the cars as awful. (Lombardi); (Yolen); (The Holocaust: Railway Car)

 There were hundreds of people who died in the boxcars on their way to the concentration camps.

According to a man helping rescue the prisoners of the camps, “In each of them the floor of the car was covered with dead, emaciated bodies. In some of these cars there were more than enough to cover the floors.” (THE 45TH INFANTRY DIVISION). This would be horrifying for the people who didn’t die in the cars, owning to the fat that they were in a car with a decomposing body for days, sometimes even weeks. This would be traumatizing for any person of any age, especially children. “This authentic 15-ton freight car is one of several types that were used to deport Jews. Its cramped interior would have held 80 to 100 people. Deportation trains usually carried between 1,000 and 2,000 people whose crushing weight slowed the speed of travel to about 30 mph, greatly prolonging the ordeal.” (The Holocaust: Railway Car). This decrease in speed made it severely painful for the already sick, and those who had to watch their relatives die. (The Holocaust: Railway Car); (THE 45TH INFANTRY

DIVISION)

The size of the cars, the conditions of the boxcars, and the deaths that occurred in the cars were all things that made them a bad part of the Holocaust. The boxcars used to transport the cars were awful and cramped. The people who consructed the cars only made them to hold 40 people as a maximum, but almost 100 people were crammed into every car. The prisoners did not have any of the supplies that they needed to survive, then they were stuck in an enclosed location for days and weeks at a time. Hundreds of people died in boxcars, and others did not have a choice whether or not they wanted to be in the same location as the decaying bodies. The boxcars in the Holocaust were horrible for all people involved, and it is horrifying that it ever happened.