Trains to Life – Trains to Death, Memorial sculpture near Friedrichstraße station in Berlin, Germany

Trains to Life – Trains to Death is a 2.25-metre outdoor bronze sculpture by Frank Meisler, installed at the corner of Georgenstraße and Friedrichstraße outside Berlin's Friedrichstraße station. It shows two groups of children: a pair representing those saved by the Kindertransport and five representing the 1.6 million Jewish and non-Jewish children killed after deportation by Holocaust trains. Broken suitcases and a rail are part of the composition.

The memorial marks the departure point of the first Kindertransport on November 30, 1938, which rescued 196 Jewish children to safety in England. This journey started a rescue effort that saved thousands of children from persecution over the following years.

The sculpture represents two contrasting fates of Jewish children during Nazi occupation: some were rescued through organized transports to safety, while others perished in camps. The bronze figures silently embody these opposite journeys without words.

The bronze sculpture stands outdoors at the corner of Georgenstraße and Friedrichstraße, directly by the Friedrichstraße station in Berlin-Mitte. It is 2.25 metres tall and can be viewed from the surrounding pavement at any hour, as it sits in open public space with no gate or entrance. Look for the broken suitcases and the rail element at its base.

The memorial is the second of five Kindertransport sculptures Meisler made for railway stations; the others stand in London, Hamburg, Gdańsk and Hook of Holland. In January 2024 the bronze children were vandalised with graffiti showing mosques on a child's body and on a suitcase.