When I travel I make a point of visiting places of Jewish interest. This is particularly true of my travels through Europe, if a city has a Holocaust memorial I make a point of trying to see it on my first visit.

Today I visited Stuttgart for the first time. Before WWII, Stuttgart was home to around 2,500 Jews (and there is historical evidence of Jewish life in Stuttgart dating back to the 1300’s). Between 1941 and 1945 the goods yard at the old Stuttgart North train station was used as a loading point for over 2,200 Jews who were sent to Auschwitz and other camps. Almost none survived the war. The old station is long gone, but around the old loading tracks is a memorial to those for whom this was, literally, the end of the line. Visiting this memorial is a surreal experience, made more so by standing on the tracks in front of the huge wall of victim names.