Chris Tarrant is on a mission to cross three former Soviet republics entirely by rail in just one week.

Chris Tarrant explores the darkest chapter in the history of the railways, their role in the Nazi Holocaust of WWII. Traveling through three countries, he takes a railway journey that will chronicle how the Holocaust evolved during a 10 year period from 1935 to 1945, starting in Nuremberg and ending at the death camps of Auschwitz. The programme explores the history step-by-step, starting with the implementation of the first anti-Jewish laws and the Nazi’s simultaneous quest to build the world’s most powerful railway. Chris investigates how thousands of trains involved in the war were also used to deport millions to ghettos and death camps. He meets holocaust survivors who suffered for days on board cattle trucks and hears their tales of horror, death and heroic acts of bravery. He meets people who worked on the railways and historians who will argue that the Holocaust was neither planned nor inevitable and that it wouldn’t have been possible on such a scale without Hitler’s railways.

From the deserts of Lawrence of Arabia, Chris follows the route of the Hejaz Railway up through Jordan, before crossing the border into Israel. He's headed for the holiest city of all-Jerusalem.

Chris attempts to cross the five countries of the Balkan region in six days. Travelling from Slovenia to Montenegro, via Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, he discovers how the former state-run Yugoslav railways in Tito's days are faring since their break-up in the 1990s, goes in search of Tito's famous blue train and talks to some fascinating local people en route.

Chris Tarrant traverses Morocco, heading for the Sahara.