Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bergen Belsen, Holocaust, Holocaust Survivors, Liberators, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, World War II on November 17, 2008| 1 Comment »
I took this photo at the WW2 Memorial in Washington DC. when I was there for my United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Teacher fellowship. The 30th Infantry Division is meeting again in Charleston, SC at the end of March. It will be good to see these “old soldiers” again. I’m sure many survivors will join us. Contact me for more information.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bergen Belsen, Hillersleben, Holocaust, Holocaust Survivors, Liberators, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, World War II on November 15, 2008| 8 Comments »
(Christian Wolpers photo.)
This account is taken from 1st Lt. Frank Towers’ recollection:
“First of importance was getting food, water and medical assistance to these victims.Our 105th Medical Battalion was called upon to survey this group and give immediate attention to those most in need.The 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. Dettmer immediately contacted the Burgomaster of Farsleben, and without any hesitation, ordered the Burgomaster to order his citizens to gather up all of the food, clothing, soap and sanitary supplies, to help the situation that these victims found themselves in. Secondly, they were ordered to offer them any housing facilities that were available, particularly for the elderly and those families with children
The German people caused these victims to be in the situation in which they were found, so therefore it was felt that it was their responsibility to rectify what they had done to them over the past five years.
At first they rebelled at these orders, but upon the threat of execution of the Burgomaster, and with a pistol held to his head, the citizens of Farsleben complied and went about the task which they had been ordered to do.
At this time the Burgomaster began to cooperate, and told his citizens to take some of these Jews into their homes and give them some comfort, which they did, very grudgingly. This was the first taste of “Home” for many of them after some months or years of inhuman incarceration.
Sincemy duties as a Liaison Officer were at a minimum at this point, I was placed in charge of procuring sufficient vehicles on which these 2,500 Jewish victims could be loaded, and to relocate them to Hillersleben, about 10 km distant.
It must be noted here that in most cases, it was not possible to drive directly from “point A to point B” which may in fact be only 5 – 10 km.With bridges on all main roads either bombed or deliberately blown up by the retreating German army, it required navigating over many secondary and unimproved farm roads to find a suitable route to get from “point A to point B”, which in some cases was 25 – 30 km.
Having driven over these roads for the previous few days, I was relatively familiar with these deviations, and was thus chosen for this job.
After loading up these Jewish victims on our trucks and navigating the convoy over a devious route, we arrived at the designated site in Hillersleben, where their custody was turned over to the American Military Government for further processing.
Initially, they were deloused!Their bodies and clothing were totally infested with lice, so they were heavily dusted with DDT, stripped of their clothing, which was burned, given a shower, then re-supplied with adequate clothing, which had been furnished by the people of Farsleben.
Settled in to their new surroundings, here they were given appropriate medical care according to their needs, and fed with adequate but rationed food, and they were eventually processed for repatriation to their homelands.”
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bergen Belsen, Bergen Belsen Memorial, Farsleben, Hillersleben, Holocaust, Holocaust Survivors, Liberators, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, World War II on August 20, 2008|
Survivor Micha and his wife Louise recently returned from a trip to Bergen Belsen, Farsleben and Hilersleben. In 2006 Micha contacted me and has since met me and his fellow survivors and liberators many times, being one of our featured speakers for the first reunion here at the school. I’m including some photos above, and some of Louise’s notes below.
“…turns out the concrete underpass visible in some of George’s photos (above) helps with a positive [identification] of exactly where the front of the train was…
Christian W also indicated that the presence of the individuals with papers on the three trains wasn’t a random thing — it might have been a strategic move to separate prisoners who still had some potential value from the unfortunate souls being sent from the other camps at the end of the war. As I understand it, there is some evidence that Himmler decided to move all his “valuable” human pawns who could be exchanged for German POWs to a single more “secure” (?) location as it became clear that the Germans were going to lose the war soon, and he wanted these individuals handy to support negotiations for trades and deals. The [Bergen Belsen] Memorial even presents the routes the various trains took — the Farsleben train was the first and ran into difficulties moving south because of damage to major bridges. As a result, the other two trains took different paths.”
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bergen Belsen, Bergen Belsen Memorial, Farsleben, Hillersleben, Holocaust, Holocaust Survivors, Liberators, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, World War II on August 20, 2008|
In recent correspondence with Christian Wolpers of the Bergen Belsen Memorial in Germany, he brought my attention to “the drawings of the Hungarian artist Ervin Abadi ,who was also on the train and made some watercolour drawings of the train, , the village of Zielitz (the rear end of the train was closer to Zielitz than to Farsleben, so some of the liberated say that they were liberated near Zielitz), Magdeburg and Bergen-Belsen.” Here are two of them.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bergen Belsen, Bergen Belsen Memorial, Holocaust, Holocaust denial, Holocaust Survivors, Liberators, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, World War II on August 17, 2008|
Found this photo while in Washington at the USHMM searching their photo archives. It’s our train, and the Museum was not aware that it was
A woman and two children rest next to a stopped train.
the train liberated near Farsleben. The photographer is identified as Harry E. Boll. I’m going to try to track him down.
Normally I don’t respond to the Holocaust deniers who have attacked this story (“Who Actually Believes This Garbage, These Are Starving Concentration Camps Survivors?”) but to the creeps out there who find my work offensive, thanks for the honor of annoying you. This one’s especially for you.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bergen Belsen, Bergen Belsen Memorial, Farsleben, Hillersleben, Holocaust, Holocaust Survivors, Liberators, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, World War II on August 1, 2008| 2 Comments »
I’m back from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
As promised, it was a very intense 6 day workshop with 13 other teachers from across the US, wonderfully moving and at times tough to fathom but always engrossing and enlightening. I met some friends for life here- these educators and I share a bond that runs very deep. We each have our own missions to fulfill, with the Museum staff and each other for support.
I am a United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Teacher Fellow. It’s a responsibility not to be taken lightly.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bergen Belsen, Bergen Belsen Memorial, education, Farsleben, Hillersleben, history education, Holocaust, Holocaust Survivors, Liberators, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, World War II on July 6, 2008|
Sara in 1945
To the liberators:
I, Sara Atzmon Gottdiener am grateful to you in my name and the names of my fellow survivors of the death train you saved from a sure death so many years ago. You and your division have saved us at the last moment.
I was 12 years old then and was weighing about 37.5lb.
Although the great distance and the fact that I don’t know you personally, I have to confess that within my soul I feel very close to you as if I’ve known you all my life.
You then appeared to us like angels from heaven and saved us all from a sure death.
I always wanted to know, how did we seem to you? What did you think
about us? All of you were at your best, winning the war for the whole
world and on the other hand we, who didn’t even look like human beings!
We the Gottdiener family have lost 60 of our own family alone through
all kinds of indescribable deaths…
Half a year in Bergen Belzen was a university for life. We didn’t take a
shower for half a year, we were covered with lice and boils. We got once
a week bread made of sawdust about one slice a day and soup made of
potato skins. Recently I watched a documentary showing the kitchen
supervisor signing a receipt for meat delivered from the crematorium,
and so without knowing we became cannibals. The Dutch Jews were our
neighbors. I watched the piles of bodies coming out of their camp every
day, among them was Anna Frank. (in my work I try to draw their
prayers).
On April 6th 1945 we were taken out at night, the British were bombing,
we were given live typhoid vaccines and the march to the train started for
7 kilometers. Most of us were by now sick or very weak. We were 6 days
in the train until it stopped. The German soldiers asked for civilian clothes
and told us to say to the Americans that we were treated well by them.
They ran away. We saw a whole German hospital take off, bandaged and
all. That night we found ourselves in the middle of a cannon battle
between the Americans and the Germans.
The next day, April 13th 1945, [was] a sunny and quiet day. Two of my sisters
went looking for food, on their way they met you our “American Angels”
and you know the rest of the story. I remember the soup you mentioned
that you have brought from Hilersleben. (I didn’t draw the picture yet)…
We were all half dead and wouldn’t have last another week.
So, the fact is that you came along and gave us our lives back-a new life!
Three months following our release we were finally in the Land of Israel…
As of today we’re 8 remaining brothers and sisters that aren’t young
anymore, but we remember, never forgot! We are busy commemorating
our terrible ordeal, in schools, army bases telling about the miracles that
kept us alive so many years ago…
I will be very happy to meet you and the rest of our saviors as soon as we can organize this meeting.
I hope you have surfed my website, there you can see some of my paintings and hear some of the music.
Sincerely yours,
Sara Atzmon Gottdinier.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bergen Belsen, Bergen Belsen Memorial, education, history, history education, Holocaust, Holocaust Survivors, Liberators, narrative history, oral history, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, World War II on May 27, 2008| 1 Comment »
I cleaned out my parents house a couple years ago after they passed on and found this memorial card among my father’s possessions. It’s for the grandmother that I never knew- she died a few years before I was born.
Tonight I was staring at it and turned it over to read the text. As you can see she passed away exactly 50 years ago today. I think my grandmother is trying to say something to me.
I include it here so I continue to think about it and because the subject seems appropriate.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 30th Infantry Division, 743rd Tank Battalion, Bergen Belsen, Bergen Belsen Memorial, concentration camps, education, Farsleben, Hillersleben, history, history education, Holocaust, Holocaust survivor-liberator reunion, Holocaust Survivors, Liberators, narrative history, oral history, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, World War II, World War II Living History Project on May 22, 2008|
Yesterday, May 21, was the 63rd anniversary of the burning to the ground of Bergen Belsen by the British Army.
“Three American soldiers, one of them named Max. who liberated the train.” This message was from the son of Dina Rubinstein of Israel. It came to me on the 63rd anniversary 
of the liberation. The guys may be members of the 743rd Tank Battalion. Anyone out there know who they are?
Dear Matt
Thanks
Today is the13th.
My mother still considers its to be her birthday, pity she is not in condition to come and meet you all.
My late father passed the same route that Mr. Ernest Kan did and met my mother then in Magdeburg. Since that day on they were together till the day he passed away.
I will show these clips on Saturday when my mother and all the rest of my family gathers at my place for the Passover eve dinner.
Even though I do not know you personally, and sure you do not know me, you mean a lot to me, you touched me deep inside.
I have no more words to explain my feelings, just want to thank you all for that wonderful gesture you made to my parents.
Greetings
Joseph Matzkel
Givatayim, Israel
These are the three guys who saved her life.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Holocaust, Holocaust Survivors, Liberators, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, World War II on December 11, 2007| 5 Comments »
.
“My brother asked me why he was my hero.
My reply: because he is, and because he so did not wish to be called one.”
https://teachinghistorymatters.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/let-me-stop-you-there/
Teaching History Matters 