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Trains to Life – Trains to Death

Trains to Life – Trains to Death is the second of five sculptures by Frank Meisler commemorating the Kindertransport history of 1938–39. Created in collaboration with Lisa Sophie Bechner and Kindertransport Organisation Deutschland e. V., it stands at the original departure site for the children, Berlin Friedrichstraße station. The monument shows two differently coloured groups of child figures, broken suitcases and a railway track, symbolising departures into life and into death. It remembers the children who survived through Kindertransport or by hiding, as well as the many children who died in the Holocaust. The memorial was inaugurated on 30 November 2008, 70 years after the first Kindertransport.

Trains to Life – Trains to Death monument showing several bronze children on a stone base with a plaque.
The Trains to Life – Trains to Death memorial by Frank Meisler, shown with several bronze children on its stone pedestal.
July 2010 © · CC BY-SA 3.0
The Trains to Life – Trains to Death memorial with bronze child figures on a stone platform and railway tracks leading down the steps.
The Trains to Life – Trains to Death memorial in Berlin, with bronze figures standing on a raised platform beside embedded railway tracks.
August 2009 © · CC BY-SA 3.0
Trains to Life – Trains to Death bronze sculpture with human figures on a pedestal near a subway station entrance
The Trains to Life – Trains to Death memorial stands on a plaza near a subway station entrance.
July 2013 © · CC BY-SA 3.0
Bronze figure in Trains to Life – Trains to Death holding a stitched toy bear
Detail of Trains to Life – Trains to Death showing a bronze figure cradling a stitched toy bear.
October 2024 © · CC BY-SA 4.0
Close-up of the inscription plaque on Trains to Life – Trains to Death
Inscription plaque on Trains to Life – Trains to Death in Berlin.
June 2022 © · CC0

Identification

TitleTrains to Life – Trains to Death
German titleDenkmal Züge in das Leben – Züge in den Tod; trains to death – trains to life 1938–1945
TypeOutdoor memorial sculpture

Historical context

SubjectKindertransport history, 1938–39
Commemorated rescue actionKindertransport / children's trains
Historical backgroundThe British Parliament decided on 21 November 1938 to accept children without limit from Germany, Austria, and later Czechoslovakia, as well as from Poland; on 22 November 1938, the Belgian Parliament also decided to save 1,000 children; by the start of the Second World War, almost 10,000 child refugees had entered Great Britain via the Netherlands, mostly from Hoek van Holland

Creator

ArtistFrank Meisler
Artist's professionArchitect and sculptor
Artist's connection to subjectEyewitness to the historical events; he survived as a child thanks to the Kindertransport
CollaboratorLisa Sophie Bechner
Associated organizationKindertransport Organisation Deutschland e. V.
Artist's originBorn in Danzig

Creation and series

Series positionSecond of five sculptures in the Kindertransport series
Series locationsBerlin, London, Hamburg, Gdańsk, and Hook of Holland

Location and ownership

Installation locationOutside Berlin Friedrichstraße station at the intersection of Georgenstraße and Friedrichstraße, Berlin, Germany
Site significanceThe authentic departure place of the children

Physical characteristics

Depicted elementsTwo groups of children, broken suitcases, and a railway track
Height2.25 m

Materials

MaterialBronze

Iconography and meaning

SymbolismThe railway track symbolizes departures into life and into death
First group of childrenA pair of children symbolizing those saved by the Kindertransport
Second group of childrenFive children representing children brought by Holocaust trains to concentration camps and later killed there
Commemorated childrenChildren saved by Kindertransports from Nazi persecution; children who survived in hiding; and children who died in the Holocaust, including Jewish and non-Jewish children, Sinti and Roma children, children of communists and social democrats, children of Slavic peoples, and victims of Nazi euthanasia murders
Represented numberFive children in the second group; the memorial also refers to about 1.5 million to 1.6 million children who died in the Holocaust

History and restoration

Date of unveiling30 November 2008
Unveiling occasion70 years after the first Kindertransport
Unveiling officialPetra Pau, Vice President of the German Bundestag
Attendees at unveilingMore than 60 eyewitnesses from Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and the USA
Earlier installation of bronze figuresThe bronze figures had previously been erected by the Berlin police
Pedestal claddingThe pedestal cladding was carried out by Güldas, the only Turkish stonemason company in Berlin

Significance

DistributionThe sculptures are part of the European Route of Kindertransports

Other

Stylistic noteThe related sculptures show similarities as well as differing design details