Aspang Bahnhof
In Vienna’s third district lies Aspang Bahnhof where the majority of Vienna’s (and Austrian Jews) were deported to eastern Europe between 1939 and 1945. The central location of the station, yet a bit obscure, made it suitable for the purpose. The first deportations took place at the end of October 1939, when two transports with a total of about 1,600 Jewish men were deported to Nisko in eastern Poland. The deportations can then be divided into two periods, spring 1941, and between autumn 1941 and autumn 1942 when the majority of the Jews were deported. During these two periods, about 45,000 Jews (men, women and children) were deported in 45 transports. The destinations for the transports were ghettos, camps and sometimes directly to a extermination camp. When the major deportations were completed in the autumn of 1942, no more deportations took place from Aspang. The few Jews that remained in Vienna were deported from Vienna’s north station. Of the approximately 46,500 deported from Aspang, no more than about 1,000 survived the war.
Current status: Monument (2008).
Address: Aspangstrasse, 1030 Wien.
Get there: Commuter train to Rennweg station.
Follow up in books: Gilbert, Martin: The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War (1987).
After the war, the Aspang station was again used for passenger traffic until 1971 when traffic was closed. In 1977, the station house was demolished, but the tracks and storage buildings remained and were used as a freight yard until 2001 when they were demolished. In 1983 a smaller memorial plaque was erected and in 1995 the site was renamed Platz der Opfer der Deportation (Victims of the Deportations). In 2017, a major memorial was inaugurated in honor of the Jews who were deported from Aspang Bahnhof.