HUDSON FALLS * 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.”
The fifth man on stage was Matthew Rozell, not a passenger on the train, but
rather a Hudson Falls High School history teacher who created a World War II
history project in the 1980s to generate student interest in that war. The
project has since evolved into a detailed Web site that chronicles war stories
from local military veterans.
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 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 to be a part of this,” 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.
Gross, 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. The reunion was recorded, and a copy of the recording will be
sent to Gross.
Keston, who lives in Sydney, Australia, also was unable to attend, but she
also wrote a letter that was read aloud 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
student-made DVD that included the photos and narratives of the train scene.
The dozen photos showed families leaving the train and some children smiling
at the camera despite being weakened from starvation.
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.
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.”
"A Train Near Magdeburg" 5-28-06
New York Teacher article 11-03