The railways played a crucial role in the Holocaust by transporting millions of Jewish people and other victims to concentration and extermination camps across Europe. The efficiency and extensive reach of the German railway system enabled the Nazis to execute their mass murder plans systematically. These trains were used to move people from ghettos and other locations to remote camps, often under inhumane conditions, leading to the deaths of countless individuals before they even arrived at their destinations.
While the railways also served to facilitate the movement of Nazi soldiers and were part of the broader infrastructure of control and occupation in occupied territories, their primary and most horrific function during the Holocaust was the mass transportation of those targeted for extermination.