Following invasion of Poland in September 1939 Nazi Germany disbanded Polish National Railways ( PKP ) immediately , and handed over their assets to the '' Deutsche Reichsbahn '' in Silesia , Greater Poland and in Pomerania . In November 1939 , as soon as the semi-colonial General Government was set up in occupied central Poland , a separate branch of DRB called '' Generaldirektion der Ostbahn '' ( '' Kolej Wschodnia '' in Polish ) was established with headquarters called GEDOB in Kraków ; all of the DRB branches existed outside Germany proper . The '' Ostbahn '' was granted of railway lines ( nearly doubled by 1941 ) and 505 km of narrow gauge , initially . In December 1939 , on the request of Hans Frank in Berlin , the '' Ostbahndirektion '' was given financial independence after paying back 10 million Reichsmarks to DRB . The removal of all bomb damage was completed in 1940 . The Polish management was either executed in mass shooting actions ( see : the 1939 '' Intelligenzaktion '' and the 1940 German AB-Aktion in Poland ) or imprisoned at the Nazi concentration camps . Managerial jobs were staffed with German officials in a wave of some 8,000 instant promotions . The new Eastern Division of DRB acquired of new railway lines and 1,052 km of ( mostly industrial ) narrow gauge in the annexed areas . The first Polish agglomeration subjected to forcible expulsion of Polish nationals was the port city of Gdynia . In total , 70,000-80,000 civilians had been expelled . The forced displacement of 18,000 – 20,000 Poles from Silesia began during Action Saybusch of 1939 and ballooned to around 265,000 before 1944 , on top of 630,000 expelees from the Wartheland . The total number of Polish nationals deported from Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany reached 923,000 . The DRB trains were used to cleanse and resettle interwar Poland with the German-speaking colonists in the name of " Lebensraum "
Intelligenzaktion
Intelligenzaktion
Holocaust trains