Teaching History Matters

DAY 2. WE.FOUND.THE.TRAIN.

We got to Magdeburg this afternoon, checked in to the lovely hotel, strolled down to the Elbe River a block away. The current was swift on this lovely April day, probably not unlike the spring of 1945 when American GIs met up with their Red Army counterparts on the 25th April 1945 following the climactic, destructive Battle for Magdeburg by the 30th Infantry Division and the 743rd Tank Battalion only two days after the train liberation; this , after all, was the Army objective, and the reason the Jewish victims had to be moved out of harm’s way.

77 years ago at the moment I type this, the not-yet-liberated Holocaust victims witnessed the most awesome carpet bombing of Magdeburg in preparation for the April 15th attack. The earth shook as they looked skyward; one train survivor mentioned that they shouted with joy, not caring if they themselves were killed in the attack by an errant bomb.

At 4 pm we were met at the hotel by Johanna M., a German 20 yr. old who, as a high school student, was inspired by the story of the train and its liberation—literally in her own backyard. With flawless English, she guided us to the site of the liberation. [Her teacher, Karin P., had started Johanna and her classmates on this odyssey to learn as much as they could, organizing events with survivors and others, after teacher Karin was directed to my book by local historian Daniel K. and his father. (Our mutual friend Ron Chaulet was a major force in organizing the local Stranded Train Committee’, after convincing enough folks that this was important and perhaps needed a monument to honor the survivors who were liberated-and many then perished here—as well as to the liberating soldiers.)]

Well. We drove to the liberation site, about 20 minutes away, rural, but not-too-far outside the ‘big city’. The monument was placed two years ago, ceremonies for the 75th anniversary postponed. Now, here we were. The team of Mike Edwards, director, Joe and Josh, expert videographers and photographers, and Johanna and I compared the April 13 & 14,1945 liberation photographs with the April 12, 2022 topography.

Trains whizzed by as we walked the tracks and hillside for a half mile and back, stopping to look at the 1945 pics, wondering if we could find the actual site of the now famous Major Benjamin photo. It was hard, but on the way back to where we can see in the 1945 photos the hillside and first railroad cars, we ‘thought’ we had found it. (Sometimes you have to walk in the footsteps of the direction the American GIs came from!)

And just then, a railroad transport of industrial cars came by, in the same southernly direction of the Train Near Magdeburg’s route. We had found the site of the famous photo, the only place where the topography really lined up, and now in the film footage we shot, the knolls visible behind the trains matched, without a doubt.

Major Benjamin, George Gross, and Carrol Walsh were smiling down on us. We celebrated by going out to dinner in Johanna’s hometown.

Today is the [smaller, post Covid] 77th anniversary ceremony; in the next few days we will speak with her teacher Karin P. (and I can’t wait—teacher to teacher, you know), her classmates, these German kids who recognize that ‘What You Do Matters’. As Bergen Belsen historian Bernd Horstmann told us yesterday, in his view, an almost 80 year old [cosmic] circle is closing, and on many levels, which Mike and I will explore in the film.

We will also speak with other local eyewitnesses. Thanks for reading.