DAVENPORT, Iowa — A pre-WWII Holocaust railcar stopped in Davenport today and was briefly on display at the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities. The project began five years ago and took over 2,000 hours to meticulously refurbish.
"This will be one of the centerpieces, the cornerstones of Holocaust education throughout the state, as well as Western Illinois, and the entire Midwest," Quad Cities Jewish Federation Director Allan Ross said. Ross's father is a Holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia.
Restoring the railcar properly entailed finding original pieces from the 1930s and 40s, which is no easy task.
"You want to keep as much authenticity as possible," German journalist Claudia Korenke said. "So you have to find pieces for the process of refurbishment which are our original pieces like tracks" Korenke and her husband located the railcar.
Although Korenke felt a sense of accomplishment with the project completed, this day elicited mixed emotions.
"On one side, it's a positive emotion because we accomplished a project," Korenke said. "On the other side, it's a symbol of a very, if not the most, saddest event in our history."
Korenke believes this incredibly dark time should never remain in the shadow.
"We have an obligation to tell young people that what happened, caused by Germans, is the worst thing that ever happened, and it should never repeat anywhere in any part of the world," Korenke said.
A $500,000 grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority helped fund the project. It's estimated that six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.