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---
title: Auschwitz Display at U.K. Children's Attraction Called 'Bizarre'
description: A Birmingham tourist attraction, Wonderful World of Trains and Planes, has drawn ire for its “Railways in Wartime” Auschwitz display.
canonical: https://time.com/3718400/auschwitz-birmingham-wonderful-world-of-trains-and-planes/
author: Sabrina Toppa
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article:published_time: 2015-02-23T08:15:09.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:17:05.856Z
og:title: Mini Auschwitz Display at Kids' Attraction Called 'Bizarre'
og:description: U.K.'s Wonderful World of Trains and Planes comes under fire
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twitter:title: Mini Auschwitz Display at Kids' Attraction Called 'Bizarre'
twitter:description: U.K.'s Wonderful World of Trains and Planes comes under fire
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# A Mini Auschwitz Display at a U.K. Kids' Attraction Has Been Slammed as 'Bizarre'

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by 

[Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/)


## Sabrina Toppa


Feb 23, 2015 8:15 AM UTC

by 

[Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/)


## Sabrina Toppa


Feb 23, 2015 8:15 AM UTC

A tourist attraction geared at families and children in Birmingham, England has [drawn flak](http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/auschwitz-display-model-railway-centre-8692284) for its “Railways in Wartime” Auschwitz display, depicting model trains shepherding Holocaust victims to their death in Nazi concentration camps.

“The Holocaust was only possible because of trains,” Wonderful World of Trains and Planes managing director Peter Smith told the _Birmingham Mail_. He said that he had received no complaints.

A sign by the display — which lies incongruously next to models of seaside Britain in the 1930s and London in the Swinging 60s — reads: “On each train about 3,000 men, women and children were herded into cattle wagons and moved hundreds of miles to the death camps – Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz, Treblinka and others.”

Matt Lawson, a lecturer at Edge Hill University, has called the display “bizarre.”

“It’s a step too far and I really don’t understand the thought process,” Lawson told the _Mail_. “Did someone wake-up one morning and say, ‘You know what this place needs’…”

Mala Tribich, a survivor of Ravensbruck and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps who lectures on her experiences, said “Wonderful World’s Auschwitz is a useless tool in educating children about the Holocaust.”

\[[_Birmingham Mail_](http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/auschwitz-display-model-railway-centre-8692284)\]

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