USHMM Teacher Fellowship Awarded

April 18, 2008 by Matthew Rozell

Liz Bishop of CBS 6 Albany came up to our school twice to interview me and the students. My school principal (who, along with Dr. Gross, wrote a letter of recommendation for me) told me on April 10th that I am one of 14 teachers in the nation who will be attending the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Teacher Fellowship Program this summer! The Museum called me later in the day to congratulate me.

Her interest was piqued by the AP article below that appeared on March 27th.

Local Survivors of Nazi death train to attend WWII vets’ NC reunion

Several Holocaust survivors plan to attend a reunion of the American army unit unit that liberated them from a Nazi death train 63 years ago.

And a high school history teacher from upstate New York played a key role in reuniting the survivors and the veterans. Teacher Matt Rozell’s class project on World War II led to a reunion at Hudson Falls High School last September between several survivors of the train and an upstate veteran who helped liberate them.

Rozell says news stories about the reunion have led about 20 other survivors to contact him and offer their stores for his school’s World War II Web site.

Rozell is headed to Fayetteville, North Carolina for Friday and Saturday’s reunion of the 30th Infantry Division. Members of the unit’s tank battalion liberated the 2,500 Jewish prisoners from the Nazi train.

Rozell says the train survivors attending the reunion include a man who emigrated to America and went on to serve as a U.S. Army Ranger.