In the Southern Railway Museum

Small book tells of the great expulsion

A total of 120,000 prisoners of war and deportees were transported over the Semmering during the Nazi era(Bild: Südbahn Museum)

Part 3 of the "Krone" series on the treasures of Styrian regional museums: at the Südbahnmuseum in Mürzzuschlag, a railroad timetable tells of mass deportations during the Nazi era. 

It is actually a glorious feat of engineering that the Südbahnmuseum in Mürzzuschlag tells of: the Südbahn over the Semmering went into operation in 1854 - a major step for the economy of the monarchy and the beginning of tourism. "But from the very beginning, the railroad also served strategic military purposes," says museum director Kerstin Ogris. After all, the construction of the railroad line was assigned to the Ministry of War.

Route book tells of sad effectiveness
The military use of the Southern Railway was sadly effective during the Nazi era: a "course book" from 1944, which lists all regular train connections of the Nazi Reich - including all those assigned to prisoners of war and deportations - tells of this: "One of the main routes ran over the Semmering. The Nazis left nothing to chance, everything was perfectly organized and precisely documented," says Ogris.

The route book for prisoner vans(Bild: Thomas Caks)

From Tuesday to Friday, such transports were on the schedule: "In Mürzzuschlag, there was a scheduled stop of six to ten minutes." Some of the prisoners were also used as forced laborers in the railroad workshops in Mürzzuschlag. For most of them, however, the journey continued after the short stop - for all too many probably to certain death.

120,000 prisoners of war transported via Semmering
"In total, around 120,000 prisoners of war were transported over the Semmering," says Ogris. This part of the history of the Southern Railway was also to be told from the outset in this museum, which was opened in 2004 and is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year: "That's why we deliberately purchased the timetable from an antiquarian bookshop in Germany for the museum." It documents how the Nazis carried out the targeted and well-organized extermination of their opponents.

Kerstin Ogris (right) manages the Südbahnmuseum(Bild: Krone/Wagner)

The Kursbuch is currently on display at the Graz Folklore Museum as part of the exhibition " Who are you: Styria?" about the treasures of Styrian regional museums. However, a visit to the Südbahnmuseum is always worthwhile - incidentally, a new exhibition area will also open there on July 27.