2023-08-03 20:16:03
A New York history professor has restored a lost piece of the past after unearthing harrowing footage depicting US soldiers freeing Jews from a train bound for a Nazi death camp. The rare video was found by a Holocaust researcher.
Once the restored clip has been posted to YouTubeseveral Holocaust survivors have come forward, claiming to recognize themselves and their family members in the footage.
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Matthew Rozell, a Holocaust researcher and former decorated history professor who found the video at the US National Archives, said: “I don’t want to say that I’m satisfied or justified, because even without this footage, this is an incredible story.” according to the Israeli newspaper Times of Israel.
Miracle of Farsleben
Dubbed the “Miracle of Farsleben,” the rescue operation took place on April 13, 1945, as a Nazi train transported 2,500 Jewish prisoners from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp — where the iconic Jewish refugee Anne Frank died weeks before—to Theresienstadt.
The locomotive was reportedly forced to stop near the town of Farsleben as Allied forces shelled the region. This put the reluctant passengers in danger, as SS officers were given direct instructions to execute as many prisoners as possible if they did not reach their destination.
Fortunately, the prisoners were saved after an American tank and jeep appeared at the top of the hill, when a group of Nazi soldiers fled the scene. The Americans then opened the carriage doors and freed the prisoners, no doubt saving them from the fate that befell an estimated 6 million Jews.
“Everyone looked like a skeleton”
Although the Farsleben train rescue was well documented in photos, this was the first time that video footage of the incident had been uncovered. Footage — without sound — taken by one of the soldiers, shows the emaciated and beaten passengers sitting outside the locomotive in tattered clothes.
One of the US officers said: “Everybody looked like a skeleton, so hungry, their faces sick.” He also stated that the Jewish prisoners’ reaction to their release was an “outburst of pure, almost hysterical relief”. Israeli media outlets were able to track down survivors — some of whom recognized themselves in the video.
“The Blessed Lord performed a miracle in my life”
“In the video, I saw my mother, my sister and me. I was very moved when I saw the images. I was speechless,” says 90-year-old Holocaust survivor Jacob Barzilai. The Jew, who was 12 years old at the time, recalled that his father and grandfather were also with them, but they died in Bergen-Belsen.
A Holocaust survivor, who also saw the historic footage, said: “Today, I have 26 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren, and there is another one on the way. The Blessed Lord performed a miracle in my life.”
The discovery of the video was a major achievement for Matthew Rozell, a former SUNY Geneseo professor who has devoted years of his life to unearthing as much information as possible about the Miracle at Farsleben. The historian’s work yielded a book, A Train Near Magdeburg: A Teacher’s Journey into the Holocaustpublished in 2016.
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