Few of those deported to the death camps knew what awaited them. Ordered to assemble for relocation to labor camps, they were brought to railway sidings. The Germans treated them as "freight," crowded them into cattle cars without food, water, or sanitary facilities and "shipped" them to their destination. Some did not survive these horrific journeys, which could last for several days.

The death camps were located near railway lines to facilitate the transport of Jews from all over Europe. They were also built close to the major Polish ghettos where large numbers of Jews were concentrated. Treblinka, for example, was a short distance from Warsaw and was the killing center for the majority of Warsaw’s Jews. Auschwitz was located in southern Poland. More than a million Jews from Central and Western Europe were deported there to be murdered.

Arrival of Hungarian Jews at Auschwitz death camp,
Oswiecim, Poland, 1944.
(Yad Vashem)