The most notable use of a sealed train was the return of
Vladimir Lenin to Russia from exile in Switzerland in 1917—in fact, that particular journey was not a true sealed train, because the passengers disembarked to spend the night in Frankfurt—but the practice was used a number of other times throughout the 20th century to allow the migration or transport of controversial individuals or peoples. For instance, sealed trains were used for repatriation of combatants in the
Spanish Civil War, Jewish
emigration from Nazi Germany to the United States, and
expulsion of
East German refugees to
West Germany. ==References==