Deportation

Deportation is the forcible removal of people by state or military authorities, usually against their will and often in inhumane conditions. During the Nazi era, hundreds of thousands of Jews and other persecuted people were systematically deported from Germany and the occupied territories to ghettos, concentration and extermination camps.

Deportations were a central instrument of the Nazi policy of persecution and extermination. They were often carried out in trains, under tight security and on the pretext of 'resettlement' or 'labour', although they usually led directly to death.