Teaching History Matters

This statement was read at the reunion by my good friend and esteemed colleague, Rene Roberge.

Sincere greetings to all of you gathered at this celebration of the indomitable spirit of mankind!

Greetings first to all the admirable survivors of the train near Magdeburg, and our thanks to you for proving Hitler wrong. You did not vanish from the face of the earth as he and his evil followers planned, but rather your survived, and grew, and became successful and contributing members of free countries, and you are adding your share of free offspring to those free societies. You have vowed that the world will never forget the horrors of the Holocaust, and you spread the message by giving interviews, visiting schools, writing memoirs, and publishing powerful books on the evil that infected Nazi Germany and threatens still to infect the world. I have met and enjoyed the company of Dr. Peter Lantos and Drs. Micha and Louise Tomkiewicz, and I carry on a rewarding conversation with Lexie Keston, Fred Spiegel, and Micha Tomkiewicz’s niece Elisabeth in France by E-mail. I am enriched by the friendship of such courageous people who somehow have maintained a healthy sense of humor and a desire to serve through all the evils inflicted upon you. I am very sorry that I am unable to meet with you today.

Greetings also to the dedicated teacher whose efforts have brought us all together through the classes he has taught on World War 2 and the web site he maintains at the cost of hours of time not easily found in his duty as a high school teacher. I know that several of you found your quest for knowledge of your past rewarded by the interviews and pictures Matt Rozell and his classes have gathered and maintained. Selfishly, I am grateful to Mr. Rozell for leading several of you to me, bringing added joy to my retiring years.

My grateful greetings and thanks, too, to the administration of Hudson Falls High School, who have allowed Mr. Rozell the latitude to teach special classes and maintain the web site that has been so important to the survivors gathered here and to the message they bring to the world. Greetings also to all the faculty, staff, students, parents, and friends of the school at which this important gathering takes place. Thank you for your interest in the survivors of the Holocaust and their message.

And special greetings also to my old Army buddy, Judge Carrol Walsh, and his great family. Carrol fought many battles beside me, saved my life and sanity, and resuscitated my sense of humor often. We had just finished a grueling three weeks of fighting across Germany, moving twenty or more hours per day, rushing on to reach the Elbe River. Carrol and I were again side by side as we came up to the train with Major Benjamin, chased the remaining German guards away, and declared the train and its captives free members of society under the protection of the United States Army as represented by two light tanks. Unfortunately, Carrol was soon ordered back to the column on its way to Magdeburg while, luckily for me, I was assigned to stay overnight with the train, to let any stray German soldiers know that it was part of the free world and not to be bothered again.

Carrol missed much heartbreaking and heartwarming experience as I met the people of the train. I was shocked to see the half-starved bodies of young children and their mothers and old men—all sent by the Nazis on their way to extermination. I was honored to shake the hands of the large numbers who spontaneously lined up in orderly single file to introduce themselves and greet me in a ritual that seemed to satisfy their need to declare their return to honored membership in the free society of humanity. I was heartbroken that I could do nothing to satisfy their need for food that night, but I was assured that other units were taking care of that and the problem of housing so many free people. Sixty years later, I was pleased to hear that the Army did well in caring for their new colleagues in the battle for freedom. I saw many mothers protecting their little ones as best they could, and pushing them out, as proud mothers will, to be photographed. I was surprised and please by the smiles I saw on so many young faces. Some of you have found yourselves among those pictured children, and you have proved that you still have those smiles. I was terribly upset at the proof of man’s inhumanity to man, but I was profoundly uplifted by the dignity and courage shown by you indomitable survivors. I have since been further rewarded to learn what successful, giving lives you have lived since April 13, 1945.

I wish I could be with you in person at this celebration, as I am with you in spirit. I hope you enjoy meeting each other and getting to know Matt Rozell and Carrol Walsh. I look forward to seeing again my friends whom I have met and to meeting the rest of you either in person or by E-mail. My experience at the train was rich and moving, and it has remained so, locked quietly in my heart until sixty years later, when the appearance of you survivors began to brighten up a sedate retirement. You have blessed me, friends, and I thank you deeply. May your lives, in turn, bring you the great blessings you so richly deserve.

Fondly yours,

George C. Gross

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From: Avital P.
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 5:00 PM
To: Rozell Matt
Subject: A Train Near Magdeburg

Hi Mr. Rozell,

First, on behalf of my mother Ariela Rojek, I would like to wish you and your family a very Happy and Healthy New Year….

Several weeks ago my mother received a copy of your DVD and we all sat down to watch it with her. I must tell you we had chills up and down our spines. It is mind boggling to even imagine what transpires in our survivors’ and liberators’ minds when such a reunion takes place.

My mother was inspired to put her memories down on paper regarding the liberation and I have attached it in this e-mail. She has also asked me to include a couple of pictures that she took when she went back to visit the site a few years ago. Please add her story to the few that you already have and if you would like to share with the rest of the group you may go ahead.

Please continue to stay in touch and send us any other news that you may have in the future.

Thanks again for the great work that you have done.

Sincerely,

Avital P., on behalf of Ariela Rojek

Dear Mr. Rozell,
After speaking with you in October and watching the reunion DVD, I decided to write down some of my memories and send them to you. I hope that they will contribute to the research that you have done.
I was born in Poland, where I spent time in the ghetto and a prison. I then spent two years in Bergen-Belsen.
When told to prepare ourselves for the departure in the train I was already very weak and sick. Two weeks prior I had very high fever. I was with my aunt, my father’s sister, as by then I had lost my entire family.
The Germans let us know that all those who could not walk would have to stay behind. My aunt wanted to stay because she knew that I was already very weak; however, I insisted on going. I said to my aunt, “You know that they kill the weak and the sick. We will go with the healthy people.” Although I was only 11½ years old, my aunt listened to me. I probably had a very strong will to live.
Although this might not be relevant, I would like to tell it anyway:
Before we left, they gave each of us a raw potato, and somehow we managed to bake them over wood. My aunt then said to me, “You know that now is the Passover holiday” – we barely remembered what day of the week it was, let alone the date. “On Passover, according to the story, our forefather Moses took us out of Egypt. Maybe G-d is bringing us to freedom, and maybe we will live.”
We walked a few kilometres to the train, and out of weakness we dropped most of the things that we still had with us. We reached the first car in the train, and there were a few women who saved us a spot. The train slowly moved but stopped every few kilometres because the tracks were destroyed from the bombings.
In one of the stations we saw a cargo train carrying beets. A good friend of mine convinced me to go steal the beets, and with my last strength I went. (I am actually still in touch with her today. Her and her brother are in the same picture as me, and she is the one who confirmed that I am the girl sitting on my knees on the right side of the picture). The beets tasted like the Garden of Eden, and my aunt said they tasted like melon. Of course, I didn’t remember how melon tasted.
The train continued to some place and stopped – on one side there was a forest and on the other side the Elba River. I remember the place exactly as it looks in Dr. Gross’s photograph.
After awhile, some Germans rode by on bicycles, and when they heard it was a train full of Jews they ordered the German guards to kill us. In the meantime, American planes flew low above us and apparently took pictures that showed people and children. The German guards that were still there to watch over us started to shoot with machine guns at the planes. Our people asked them to stop shooting, but they refused. We got off the train and hid under the wheels.
I would now like to add something personal. My aunt sat with me under the wheels and took out a little notebook that contained the names and addresses of our relatives in America. She told me to learn all of this by heart because you never know who the bullet will hit – and when the war would end I should contact these relatives and ask them to take me in. I listened to her and learned everything by heart. Until today, I remember some of these names and addresses.
As you know, the Germans didn’t get a chance to kill us, and you, the American angels, came on time. The children started to run to the small village to ask for food, and again my good friend dragged me with her and we managed to get some milk and bread.
After a day or two, the American army asked us to get on trucks and go to a village called Hillersleben. We were all afraid because we had learned from the past that every transport means death. In the end, they found a Jewish American soldier who announced in Yiddish over the loudspeaker that we had nothing to be afraid of and that we would be moving to nice and clean houses. And this is how the chapter of the train ended. But for me, on a personal note, my story continued…
I want to point out that in 1995 I went with my husband to Bergen-Belsen for the 50th anniversary of the camp’s liberation. From there we went to Hillersleben. The place looked very different from what I remembered, probably as a result of the Russian influence for 50 years. We managed to find a Jewish monument in the yard of a church. On it was written: In memory of 138 Jewish survivors of Bergen-Belsen.

With regards,

Ariela Rojek
Toronto, Ontario
Canada

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Steal A Pencil For Me is the title of a film recently released at Netflix. Shortly after the reunion Dr. Gross , liberator, received the following email:

Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 10:53 AM
Subject: Train Magdeburg 1945

I was born in Amsterdam, Holland. We, my parents, older sister and I had been sent to Bergen Belsen from Westerbork where my father died in February 1945. At the time I was 10 years old and was together with my mother and older sister on the train you liberated, . I seem to remember that, coming back from searching for some food together with a cousin, we saw “somebody” with a gun running down a low hill and being told that this was an American soldier and that we were free!!!!! My memories are very vague, probably as a result of not talking about the camps for about 50 years until I realized, like many other people, that it was time to tell my children and grandchildren as much as I could remember. Last week I read the article in the Jerusalem Post, (in Israel) about you and Judge Walsh liberating “my train” on 13. April 1945. There are no words to say “thank you” that will express my feelings while reading about your experiences.. I sent the article together with links from the internet to my cousins Jack Polak and Ina Polak-Soep in New York and I am sure they will contact you directly. Thank you!!!!!!! J.W-S

I got a call from Ina about a film that was about to be released concerning her and her (future) husband’s Holocaust survivor story. It is a love story set in Bergen Belsen. Later, Jack was on the train liberated by the Russians and Ina was on the train liberated by the Americans.

Anyway, it is a beautiful story set against the tragic background of Belsen, although it has a happy ending… 60+ years of marriage. The production, storyline and cinematography is all top notch. The synopsis from the website:

“STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME is a compelling documentary feature film by Academy Award® nominee Michèle Ohayon about the power of love and the ability of humankind to rise above unimaginable suffering.

1943: Holland is under total Nazi occupation. In Amsterdam, Jack, an unassuming accountant, first meets Ina at a birthday party – a 20-year-old beauty from a wealthy diamond manufacturing family who instantly steals his heart. But Jack’s pursuit of love will be complicated; he is poor and married to Manja, a flirtatious and mercurial spouse.

When the Jews are being deported, the husband, the wife and the lover find themselves at the same concentration camp; actually living in the same barracks. When Jack’s wife objects to the relationship in spite of their unhappy marriage, Jack and Ina resort to writing secret love letters, which sustain them throughout the horrible circumstances of the war.

Jack: “I’m a very special Holocaust survivor. I was in the camps with my wife and my girlfriend; and believe me, it wasn’t easy.”

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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.”

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 http://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

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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) 

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.

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