Subverting the Tracks
Refugee Agency and the 1943 Feldkirch Freight Train Escape
The forgotten history of the 1943 Feldkirch Freight Train Escape reveals the current German-centric gap in Holocaust education
How does the forgotten history of the 1943 freight train escape redefine our understanding of active refugee resistance, and how does shifting our lens to this Austrian border node challenge the German-centric biases of mainstream Holocaust education?
Mainstream Holocaust education today has conditioned the public to view the railway system as only vehicles of victimhood. I argue that by looking at the small city of Feldkirch and instances of resistance that happened here, Holocaust educators can show the public audience that the Holocaust is not as German-centric as they may have been otherwise taught as well as that these marginalized stories reveal moments of resistance.
A railway landscape and the question of agency
The European rail network played a vital role in the “Final Solution,” set out against European
Jews by the Nazis. Using both freight and passenger cars, the Germans transported millions of
people to killing centers in German-occupied Poland and Soviet Union. Many oral histories from
Holocaust survivors describe the conditions on the trains as not being provided with food or
Border restrictions and refugees
water, intense temperatures depending on the season, and the lack of sanitary conditions (United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum “German Railways and the Holocaust”). Although it is true
that the railway was crucial for the Nazis’ plan and it is vital to educate on the horrors of the
“Final Solution,” in general, Holocaust education has conditioned the public to view train cars as
Following the border traces
refugees entering their country (St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum). Fueled by
antisemitism, on October 5th, 1938, the Reich Ministry of the Interior invalidated all German
passports held by Jews. The German government began requiring Jewish people to identify
themselves in a way that would separate them from the rest of the population. All German Jews
Feldkirch: a local encounter
Photograph of Feldkirch’s End of Built-Up Area Sign, 1 June 2026. Author’s personal collection.
An example of this escape avenue due to the increased surveillance at the borders happened on
January 7th, 1943, in Feldkirch, a small town on the Swiss border. Fourteen Jewish refugees were
taken off a coal train after officials became suspicious when wagon SZ 17068 was overloaded,
What remains visible
personal collection.
Acts of resistance that occurred at small border towns are often completely unheard of in most
classrooms. By not including these histories, important examples of Jewish resourcefulness and
agency are erased. It is essential that Holocaust education shatters the passive-victim stereotype
Remembering resistance
resistance during the Holocaust” while others claim they “do not want students to leave their
classrooms with an impression that Jews went ‘like sheep to the slaughter’” (Ellison). Looking at
lesser-known histories, like the events in Feldkirch, sheds light onto the often-forgotten physical
forms of resistance. Doing so shows that the Holocaust was more than a German historical series
Sources & Credits
Original project references, visual sources and creator credits are collected here in one place.
- Creator & project
Marie Jensen. Digital exhibition / web story. Who Owns Memory? Digital Public Exhibition, First Cycle 2026.
Ellison, J. A. (2017). How they teach the Holocaust in Jewish day schools. Cogent Education, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1310010
Loewy, Hanno. “Slovakian Jews> January 7, 1943.” Crossing the Border – Slovakian Jews - January 7, 1943, crossing-the-border.info/indexprev3_en.php?id=40. Accessed 14 Aug. 2026.
St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum. “On This Day in History: October 5.” St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, 5 Oct. 2020, stlholocaustmuseum.org/on-this-day-in- history-october-5/.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “German Railways and the Holocaust.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/german-railways-and-the- holocaust. Accessed on 14. August 2026.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “German Jews’ Passports Declared Invalid.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/timeline-event/ holocaust/1933-1938/reich-ministry-of-the-interior-invalidates-all-german-passports-held-by- jew. Accessed on 14. August 2026.
- Visual and media material
Photographs, documents, illustrations, video and audio are attributed through the project text, captions and contributor documentation wherever that information was supplied. This exhibition page does not grant additional reuse permissions.
- Digital exhibition edition
Web presentation adapted for Who Owns Memory? (2026), with layout and language editing. The original contributors retain authorship of their research, interpretation and creative work.