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Why It Matters...

This online journal was begun to chronicle the unfolding of something very special in my career that is, I think, profoundly affecting my life and the lives of others- the re-connection of a train transport full of 2500 Holocaust survivors with the American soldiers who liberated them on April 13th, 1945 near Magdeburg, Germany.

I am the history teacher from a small rural town in upstate New York, USA who is caught up in the middle of it all. My students and I don't have a high profile website, but if you keep reading, you will see that several people's lives have been changed by it.

On this web log you will find my posts. The first, "Remember", was written years ago as a reaction to the "commercialization" of the American holiday of Memorial Day. It kind of describes how my World War II Living History Project came about, and I am proud of the fact that it began long before paying tribute to this generation or conducting oral history became fashionable. It's about time Ken Burns caught up with us.

The second, "A Train near Magdeburg", is a brief summary of this special story, showing how the power of the Internet is changing lives.

The next two (lengthy) posts are news articles that describe the Holocaust survivor/liberator reunion our high school hosted on September 14th, 2007, as a byproduct of this educational project. The Associated Press article by Chris Carola was picked up and run either in print or on the Web by almost every major newspaper in the United States, and many abroad, including the Jerusalem Post. The CBS Evening News even did a story on it.

In short order I was hearing from survivors who were on that train transport from every "corner" of the globe. These conversations and emails were full of emotion, and I try to imagine the feelings as many of them contacted their actual liberators for the first time. Of course I can't- only they can. Yet in speaking to many of them it is apparent that April 13th, 1945 was the day they were reborn. Some have actually discovered themselves in these amazing photographs taken on that day. The detail that many of them remember is amazing. And as one of them told me yesterday, the gratitude they feel is indescribable.


What follows is the unfolding of this story. I hope you will find them as moving as I have. Let me know what you think.

Matthew Rozell
January, 2008
marozell@hfcsd.org

"Remember..."

Scene #1: The morning of December 16, 1944. A lonely outpost on the Belgian frontier.

In subzero temperatures, the last German counteroffensive of World War II had begun. Nineteen thousand American lives would be lost in the Battle of the Bulge. “Hell came in like a freight train. I heard an explosion and went back to where my friend was. His legs were blown off-he bled to death in my arms.” The average age of the American soldier? 19.

Scene #2: Memorial Day, 60 years later. In a small town in the United States, it is a day off from work or school and it is the unofficial start to the busy summer season. We sit in our lawn chairs, we chat with neighbors and sip our drinks when the gentlemen with the flag march past.

The holiday known originally as "Decoration Day" originated at the end of the Civil War when a general order was issued designating May 30, 1868, "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion." When Congress passed a law formally recognizing the last Monday in May as the day of national celebration, we effectively got our three-day weekend and our de facto beginning of summer.

Of the sixteen million American men and women who served in WWII, a half million died on the field of conflict. In 2007, over 1200 veterans of World War II quietly slip away every day. The national memory of the war that did more than any other event in the last century to shape the history of the American nation is dying with them. Incredibly, it comes as a shock to most Americans today that the “Battle of the Bulge” didn’t originate as a weight-loss term.

In the high school where I teach, I have been inviting veterans to my classroom to share their experiences with our students. As their numbers dwindled, I smartened up, bought a camera, and began to record their stories. We’ve spoken at length with a pilot forced to bail out at 28,000 feet of his flaming B-17 bomber, only to watch crew members die in the subsequent explosion and then be taken prisoner himself. We have had conversations with POWs who survived forced marches in brutal weather, and with Jewish infantrymen who were among the first to liberate the death camp at Dachau. We have met men who were handcuffed to Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg and who were assigned to suicide watch guard shifts there after fighting their way across Germany. We can imagine what it was like to sail eerily into Pearl Harbor 36 hours after the Japanese attack and see no lights except the USS Arizona still blazing with the bodies of hundreds of Americans entombed in it. We are with the torpedo bomber pilot as he takes off from the flight deck of the carrier USS Yorktown during the epic battle of Midway, and is forced to land on the deck of another carrier as the Yorktown burns and later slides to the bottom of the sea. We intently listen to a blind Marine describe what it was like to lose his eyesight fifty-nine years to the day of his being struck by mortar fragments, not once, but twice in the same day at Okinawa (and he told us that " the hardest part was telling my mother"). Across a kitchen table I have discussions with other veterans, including a former 17 year old describing what it was like to share a foxhole with a headless fellow US Marine on Iwo Jima. My students and I are just "one person away" from the shock of Pearl Harbor, the chaos at Omaha Beach and the Huertgen Forest, the horrors of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Peleliu Island.

Sixty-plus years ago these men and women saved the world. I think about this: by the time my teaching career ends in 10 or 15 years, almost all of the survivors will be gone.

It’s not enough that I have an interest in their stories. I have long looked out into a sea of faces, some students mildly interested in what I have to say, but many others displaying a quiet and disturbing apathy about the past. What is infinitely reassuring and comforting to me, however, is that they all seem to have a genuine interest in a “real” connection with the past, with a person who becomes the ultimate source, because he or she was there.

These men and women have helped to spark students’ interest in finding out more about our nation’s past and the role of the individual in shaping it. On our website we have worked to weave the stories of our community’s sacrifices into the fabric of our national history. And that, to me, is what teaching history should be all about. After all, if we allow ourselves to forget about the teenager who bled to death in his buddy’s arms, if we overlook the sacrifices it took to make this nation strong and proud, we may as well forget everything else. Where will we be when there is nothing important about our past to remember? The answer is found in simple study of any other great civilization in history that allowed the collective memory of the past that once bound them together to be trivialized and blurred, to be eroded away and forgotten-

They're not here anymore.

Remember.

“A Train Near Magdeburg”

“A Train Near Magdeburg”

(This story takes place in the closing days of World War II, as American and British forces pushed into Germany from the west and the Soviet Red Army closed in from the east.)

On the morning of Friday, April 13^th, 1945, the US 9th Army was fighting its way eastward in the final drive through central Germany toward the Elbe River. A small task force was formed to investigate a train that had been hastily abandoned by German soldiers near the town of Magdeburg, Germany. The boxcars were filled with Jewish families that had survived the infamous concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen and were now being transported away from the advancing Allies to another death camp location. Scores of children were among the prisoners.

Two tank crews were charged with guarding these newly liberated people until the tanks could be relieved and the people could be properly cared for. By the afternoon of the 13th, one tank alone was responsible for safeguarding 2500 refugees. A small guard of emaciated Finnish soldiers who were also liberated that day set up the perimeter guard. The American tank commander had a small Kodak camera. He took several photographs that day of the newly freed men, women and children and spent some time talking to them through one of the survivors who spoke English. The following morning he was relieved, but the events of that day were never far from his thoughts. Later, he wrote them down for posterity, and filed them away with his photographs.

Sixty-plus years after the event, survivors all over the world who had been children aboard the death train are finding their rescuers’ narratives and photographs of the day of their liberation near Magdeburg in 1945 on an oral history website produced by a high school teacher, Matthew Rozell, and his students at Hudson Falls High School in upstate New York.

"Holocaust survivors reunite with vet"

World War II veteran Carrol Walsh talks to a history class at Hudson Falls High School in Hudson Falls, N.Y., Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007. The retired state Supreme Court judge will be reunited with three of the survivors of the Nazi death train Walsh's unit liberated near Magdeburg, on the Elbe River about 50 miles southwest of Berlin. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

By Chris Carola, Associated Press Writer

HUDSON FALLS, N.Y. — Carrol "Red" Walsh didn't know what to expect when his patrol came across a train stopped along a hillside during the U.S. Army's dash across northern Germany in the final, chaotic days of World War II.

In and around the abandoned line of freight cars milled some 2,500 emaciated and ragged Jewish prisoners from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. There were scores of children.

"They were just jammed, crammed in there," said Walsh, a 24-year-old tank commander in April 1945.

On Friday, the now 86-year-old retired state Supreme Court judge reunited with three of the survivors of the Nazi death train his unit found near Magdeburg, about 50 miles southwest of Berlin. The train was on its way to another concentration camp.

The veteran and the survivors were to take part in a daylong program hosted at the high school in this Hudson River village north of Albany.

The reunion has its roots in a class project launched by Matthew Rozell, a history teacher at Hudson Falls High School. In the early 1990s, he created a special project to collect stories from local veterans and post them on a Web site.

One of Rozell's students was Walsh's grandson, who told the teacher about his grandfather's wartime service. Several years ago, Rozell interviewed Walsh and George Gross, a fellow tank commander from Spring Valley, Calif.

Their account of the train liberation was posted on the project's Web site, along with black-and-white photographs taken that day by Gross and the major leading their patrol.

That's where some of the child survivors of the Nazi train, now in their 60s and 70s, found their story.

"All of this to a large degree came out of a high school project. This to me is fascinating," said survivor Micha Tomkiewicz, a Polish Jew from Warsaw who was 6 when he and his mother and uncle were liberated.

Tomkiewicz had an earlier reunion with Gross and his family. He said he's looking forward to meeting Walsh, and he credited Rozell for the reunions.

"It's pretty humbling," Rozell said.

Tomkiewicz was to be joined by fellow survivors Peter Lantos, a neurologist from London, and Fred Spiegel, an author from Howell, N.J.

Friday's program includes a viewing of "A Train Near Magdeburg," a 10-minute DVD produced by two of Rozell's students, followed by talks from each of the three survivors.

For Walsh, it will be his first face-to-face meeting with anyone from the train since he came upon them on what turned out to be their lucky day -- Friday the 13th, April, 1945.

"I had almost forgotten about the incident itself, really, over the years," Walsh said. "It was almost like another day in combat. Nothing surprised me by then."

~As a result of the worldwide publicity garnered by the attention to this story, eighteen more child survivors have contacted our school and their liberators since the reunion took place on September 14th, 2007. Read on... Special thanks to Chris Carola of the Associated Press for his interest in the story.

"Soldiers reunite with Nazi death train survivors"

Soldiers reunite with Nazi death train survivors
By OMAR AQUIJE, Glens Falls Post-Star

Friday, September 14, 2007 9:09 PM EDT

HUDSON FALLS, NEW YORK-
The audience stood, applauded and cheered after five men shook hands, smiled and faced the packed crowd.

What the audience witnessed was history — an unexpected chapter to an extraordinary tale that began 62 years ago in Germany, at the end of World War II, and continued Friday at Hudson Falls High School.

The experience was overwhelming for Carrol Walsh, who was among the five men on stage.
After all, it made him recall the events of April 13, 1945, when he and his tank battalion investigated a train that German troops had abandoned near Magdeburg, Germany.
The battalion discovered 2,500 Jews crammed in boxcars en route to a death camp.
The Jewish families had been held captive for two years, during which they survived the infamous concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen and were forced to live with little food in unsanitary conditions under German military watch.
But on that fateful, April day, they were liberated, thanks to Walsh, his buddy, Sgt. George Gross, and others in the battalion, which included two tanks.
If not for their help, Fred Spiegel, Micha Tomkiewicz and Peter Lantos may not have survived to see the end of the war, let alone the emotional connections made during Friday’s event.
"I feel very emotional about the meeting and the get-together, never having ever to imagine that I would meet anyone who was on that train," said Walsh after the morning program. He is now a retired judge who moved to Hudson Falls in July after living in Johnstown.

"To see these people in the flesh is simply an overwhelming, emotional experience," he said.

Tomkiewicz, who is now the director of environmental studies at the Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, could only remember pieces of his liberation because he was a child at the time. Therefore, he and other survivors started searching for more details to fill in the blanks.
But the information he obtained left him with a broad and abstract image of the past — until Friday.
"Suddenly, we have names. We can shake hands. We can put our own background in a context we couldn’t put before," Tomkiewicz said after the morning program. "Suddenly you have an event that crystallizes that scenario."

The fifth man on stage was Matthew Rozell, not a passenger on the train, but rather a Hudson Falls High School history teacher who created a World War II history project in the 1980s to generate student interest in that war. The project has since evolved into a detailed Web site that chronicles war stories from local military veterans.

One of his students was Walsh’s grandson, which is what led Rozell to interview Walsh in 2001. During the interview, Walsh’s daughter suggested he tell Rozell about the train.
Afterward, Walsh put Rozell in contact with Gross, who lived in California.
Gross provided photos and narratives of the liberation for Rozell to post on the project Web site.
Four years later, Rozell received an e-mail from Lexie Keston, a Holocaust survivor who was on the same train. She was 6 at the time.
The Web site, located at www.hfcsd.org/ww2, also led Tomkiewicz, Spiegel and Lantos to Rozell, and ultimately spawned Friday’s reunion.
Lantos, an emeritus professor of neuropathology at the University of London, traveled from England to attend Friday’s event, while Spiegel, an author and lecturer, came from New Jersey.
"It’s really a humbling experience," Rozell said after the morning program. "To be able to share it with the school and the students — for me, that’s where the gratification is."
The two-part reunion included speeches from the three survivors. Spiegel and Lantos each spoke about the books they wrote on their Holocaust experiences.
Dr. Gross, an emeritus professor of English who lives in San Diego, was unable to attend the reunion because of health reasons. He did, though, provide a letter that was read to the gathering by English teacher Rene Roberge. The reunion was recorded, and a copy of the recording will be sent to Gross.
Ms. Keston, who lives in Sydney, Australia, also was unable to attend, but she also wrote a letter that was read aloud by history teacher Mrs. Tara Sano at the gathering.
"I found the experience so raw and emotional that I screamed and burst into tears," she wrote of her reaction on finding the liberation photos on Rozell’s Web site.
The morning program included the showing of "A Train Near Magdeburg," a DVD by seniors Troy Belden and Eric Roman, that included the photos and narratives by the liberators of the train scene.
The dozen photos showed families leaving the train and some children smiling at the camera despite being weakened from starvation. The project really had an impact on the students who worked in it. "Meeting these people that came from the worst of the worst, and they just have the most positive attitude about it," said Hudson Falls senior Troy Belden.
Later on, Lantos and Spiegel sold copies of their books outside the auditorium. Hudson Falls senior Adam Armstrong, who bought a book, was surprised his school could play a role in Holocaust history.
"I still can’t believe that our school — that not a lot of people will know about because we are a small town — can do this much for history itself, that we can be history in the making," Armstrong said. Those involved in the event said the chance meeting has changed them as well.
"Sixty-two years ago, as those events happened, I never in my wildest imagination thought I would ever meet anyone from that train again," said Walsh.
Though the photos and narratives have been on the Web for four years, more people have been viewing them recently, Rozell said. He expects more soldiers and survivors will come forward with their own stories of the Magdeburg train as the reunion gains publicity, he said.
Tomkiewicz said he is trying to convince the education department at his school to invite Rozell for a presentation.
"When he started the project, he had no idea where it was going to lead to," Tomkiewicz said of Rozell. "It is an excellent manifestation of what education can do."

Thanks to Omar Aquije and the Glens Falls Post-Star for permission to use this story, as well as Albany, NY's Capital News 9's Kaitlyn Ross for filling in some detail.
The 800 students of HFHS set the standards of respectfulness and decorum at this important occasion.-MR 12-3-07

Greetings to the Reunion-statement by Lexie Keston, Child Survivor

Dear Matt, George, Carrol, Teachers, Students and my fellow Survivors,

I will never forget the day when I opened the Website of the Hudson Falls High School 'WW2 Living History Project', and before my unbelieving eyes I was looking back to 1945 - more accurately to April 13th 1945 - the day of my Liberation by the 9th US Army.

The 11 photographs before me were taken when I was 6 1/2 years old (younger than either of my two little granddaughters). The Train had stopped at the siding of the small station Farsleben, some 16 km from Magdeburg. I had been on this train with my parents and some 2,500 people all from the Camp Bergen Belsen. I had been incarcerated there from July 15th 1943 till April 7th 1945. In the camp we had the unusual classification of 'For Exchange to Palestine', most were classified as 'Jew'. I think that this is the only reason that we were kept together and survived as a family for nearly two years in the most horrific of circumstances.

So now some 61 years on in January 2006, in front of my computer at my home in Sydney, Australia, I was confronted with photographs of the day of my Liberation. I found this experience so raw and emotional that I screamed and then burst into tears. I studied the photographs looking and searching for myself. I thought that I could be one of the little girls, sitting in the group photo - I dismissed this for I assumed my mother would be somewhere nearby, but I did not see her.

I looked at the bleak, miserable geography of the site, the horrible train carriages, the skeletal human shapes - fortunately my memory is still a blank. I do not remember being in the train for 6 days, I do not remember being hungry or thirsty. All I remember is being out of the train, standing on the ground and watching the German guards fleeing and dropping their guns. I picked up one of these guns and before I could do anything - it was snatched from my hands. That is my only memory of that day. However, the events of the day are documented visually and that is incredible to believe. For no written words could describe so vividly the happenings of that day as do these 11 photographs. It is a historical miracle that Major Benjamin and Tank Commander George Gross had their small Kodak camera - and that on that day there was film left to use and record the day.

With today's incredible technology anyone on our planet can see this photographic evidence of my Liberation. It is the foresight of that other man of goodwill - your History Teacher Matt Rozell that these photographs were posted on Hudson Falls High School Internet Website - for all to access.

Following a series of events, I have developed a warm email relationship with Professor George Gross, with Judge Carrol Walsh and Carrol's daughter Elizabeth Connolly. It is a great joy for me to hear about their lives today and of their family happenings. The fact that this connection was made some 61 years after the event is very difficult to believe possible. But it is so.

The friendship I have developed with these two wonderful men has helped me to bring some sort of closure to that unfortunate time in my childhood. The interest they, as well as Matt, have shown in wanting to know my story has given me the encouragement I needed to write about some of my experiences. I did do so, and my story will be published in an Anthology of some twenty stories of the members of my Child Survivors group here in Sydney.

Thank you Matt Rozell, for teaching your students about tolerance and the evils of prejudice. I applaud and compliment you on your good work. You have touched the lives of your students and a growing number of Survivors. You have also I think affected the lives of the two Liberators - George and Carrol.

Your history course on this Train at Magdeburg is teaching your students the evil that was perpetrated by the Nazis during the Holocaust, against innocent people whose only sin was that they were Jews.

I hope one of the messages that your course has instilled in to the psyche of your students is that 'Evil Happens When Good Men Do Nothing.'

I wish you all great success in your future endeavours.

Lexie Keston

Sydney, Australia

September 2007