The Calculations
Powered mainly by efficient freight steam locomotives, the trains were kept to a maximum of 55 freight cars.
The standard accommodation was a 10 metre long cattle freight wagon, although third class passenger carriages were also used where the SS wanted to keep up the "resettlement to work in the East" myth, particularly in the Netherlands and Belgium.
The standard SS manual covered such trains, suggesting a resultant loading ration per train of:
- 50 people in a freight car × 50 cars = 2,500 people in each train.
Since normally the trains were loaded to 150 to 200% capacity, this results in the following:
- 100 people in a freight car × 50 cars = 5,000 people in each train
Of the estimated 6 million Jews exterminated during the Second World War, 2 million were murdered immediately by the second-rank military and political police, and mobile death squadrons of the Einsatzgruppen.
In total, over 1,600 trains were organised by the German Transport Ministry, and logged mainly by the Polish state railway company due to the majority of death camps being located in Poland. Between 1941 and December 1944, the official date of closing of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex, the transport/arrival timetable was of 1.5 trains per day:
- 50 freight cars × 50 prisoners per freight car × 1.5 trains/day × 1,066 days = 4,000,000 prisoners
On 20 January 1943, Himmler sent a letter to Reich Minister of Transport, Julius Dorpmüller: "need your help and support. If I am to wind things up quickly, I MUST HAVE MORE TRAINS."
Read more about this topic: Holocaust Train
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