The trains and SS officials in this photograph represent the systematic and bureaucratic aspects of the Holocaust.  The annihilation of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and their collaborators was a central act of state during World War II.  The Reichsbahn (German state railroad) employed 1.4 million workers, 500,000 of whom were civil servants who allocated personnel, coordinated train schedules, and kept the tracks operating (Berenbaum 112).  When the railroad system was strained by bombing and shortages toward the end of the war, trains carrying Jews continued to run.