The largest enterprise in the capitalist world between 1920 and
1945, the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German National Railway) was at the
center of events in a period of great turmoil in Germany. In this,
the second volume of his comprehensive history of the Reichsbahn,
Alfred Mierzejewski offers the first complete account of the
national railway under Hitler's regime.
Mierzejewski uses sources that include Nazi Party membership
records and Reichsbahn internal memoranda to explore the railway's
operations, finances, and political and social roles from 1933 to
1945. He examines the Reichsbahn's role in German rearmament, its
own lack of preparations for war, and its participation in
Germany's military operations. He shows that despite successfully
resisting Nazi efforts to politicize its internal functions, the
Reichsbahn cooperated with the government's anti-Semitic policies.
Indeed, the railway played a crucial role in the Holocaust by
supporting the construction and operation of the Nazi death camps
and by transporting Jews and other victims to them.