06/14/2026
On this day in 1940, the first mass transport of prisoners arrived at Auschwitz. At that time, the site consisted only of Auschwitz I. Over the course of the Holocaust, the complex expanded to include additional camps and subcamps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, which opened in 1942.
That first transport included 728 prisoners: among them Catholics, political prisoners, soldiers, resistance members, students, and some Polish Jews.
By the end of the Holocaust, approximately 1.3 million people had been imprisoned in Auschwitz and its subcamps, and more than 1.1 million were murdered there.
'Railroad car of Jews,' a drawing by Corrado Corelli, depicts a railcar crowded with women, men, and children. Corelli, conscripted into the Italian army during World War II, witnessed such deportations while commanding military trains to Russia. During one stop, German guards opened the door of a car carrying Jews, and he sketched what he saw.
He later told his daughter, who donated the drawing to the Museum, that he created it so he would never forget the horrors he witnessed. Though the people pictured were not necessarily being sent to Auschwitz, the drawing powerfully evokes the experience of deportation during the Holocaust.
You can see this object and learn more in our core exhibition, "The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do." Plan your visit at: mjhnyc.org/whathatecando
Credit: 'Railroad car of Jews' by Corrado Corelli, ca. 1942, Verona, Italy. Gift of Emilia Corelli Cucchi, 491.96
