A Train Near Magdeburg: A Teacher's Journey into the Holocaust, and the reuniting of the survivors and liberators, 70 years on
Author(s): Matthew A. Rozell (Author)
- Publisher: Matthew A. Rozell
- Publication Date: 4 Sept. 2016
- Edition: First Edition
- Language: English
- Print length: 505 pages
- ISBN-10: 0996480021
- ISBN-13: 9780996480024
Book Description
A TRAIN NEAR MAGDEBURG-AS SEEN ON CBS SUNDAY MORNING
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
A high school history teacher found a photograph of a train.
That discovery led him to track down over thirty Holocaust survivors and fifteen American soldiers who liberated them, and bring them face to face, seven decades later.
This is not a novel. It is not “based on a true story.” It happened, and the people who lived it tell you themselves.
“After I got home I cried a lot. My parents couldn’t understand why I couldn’t sleep at times.”
— Walter “Babe” Gantz, U.S. Army medic
In April 1945, American soldiers fighting their way across Germany came upon a train, abandoned on the tracks, packed with thousands of Holocaust victims on the edge of death. What those soldiers did next, and who they saved, became one of the most extraordinary and least known liberation stories of World War Two.
Years later, teacher and historian Matthew Rozell found a photograph from that day in a veteran’s shoebox, and spent years tracking down the people in it. His search uncovered never before published eyewitness accounts, survivor testimony, wartime letters, and reports, and led to reunions on three continents between the liberators and the people they saved.
“I survived because of many miracles. But for me to actually meet, shake hands, hug, and cry together with my liberators, the ‘angels of life’ who literally gave me back my life, was just beyond imagination.”
— Leslie Meisels, Holocaust Survivor
“People say it cannot happen here in this country; yes, it can happen here. I was twenty-one years old. I was there to see it happen.”
— Luca Furnari, U.S. Army
“It’s not for my sake, it’s for the sake of humanity, that you will remember.”
— Steve Barry, Holocaust Survivor
Drawing on firsthand testimony from fifteen American liberators and more than thirty Holocaust survivors, along with wartime reports, letters, memoirs, photographs, and research conducted at the actual sites, Rozell reconstructs both sides of an extraordinary moment in the closing days of the Third Reich: the survivors’ path through persecution, deportation, and imprisonment; the soldiers’ brutal campaign across Europe; and the moment their lives unexpectedly intersected beside a train in Nazi Germany.
But the story did not end in 1945. More than sixty years later, Rozell’s investigation helped reconnect hundreds of survivors and their descendants with the American soldiers who had liberated them, preserving eyewitness accounts that might otherwise have disappeared with the passing of the wartime generation.
Part World War Two military history, part Holocaust testimony, part historical detective story, this is a documented account of ordinary people caught inside one of history’s darkest events, and of the soldiers who arrived in time to save lives.
For readers of World War Two history, Holocaust history, military memoirs, liberation accounts, and firsthand eyewitness testimony.
The last witnesses will not be with us much longer. Scroll up and click “Buy Now” to read their story, in their own words, while you still can.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Buy this book. Read it. Share it. It’s worth the time and expense to lose yourself in something that never should have happened. You owe it to yourself to immerse yourself in this journey.”
“The story of the end of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime told from a very different and precise angle. First-hand accounts from Jewish survivors and the US soldiers that secured their freedom. Gripping.”
“If you have any trepidation about reading a book on the Holocaust, this review is for you. [Matthew Rozell] masterfully conveys the individual stories of those featured in the book in a manner that does not leave the reader with a sense of despair, but rather a sense of purpose.”
“Extraordinary research into an event which needed to be told. I have read many books about the Holocaust and visited various museums but had not heard reference to this train previously. The fact that people involved were able to connect, support and help heal each other emotionally was amazing.”
“This was a fantastic book! The only one I’ve read where rescuers and survivors meet! I have recommended it to others before I even finished it!”
“It is a MUST–Very well written, the author describes his research of one of the most tragic period of the modern era. The encounter between American soldiers and the Jewish prisoners on a train to death is especially moving. Reading the testimonies of the survivors as well as those of the liberators is amazing and very accurate. Mr. Rozell has done intensive work and managed to bring the survivors and the liberators to meet after more than fifty years–just before it would have been too late.”
“Incredible research went into this book.Thoroughly enjoyed reading this and so sad to know we are soon to lose this entire generation. So hope we never forget them and what they all went through.What a blessing the author is to have written this and brought these people together after so many years. What healing this has given the survivors and military men.”
“A wonderful story into humanity and the love of history. Teachers and their lessons are so valuable to our youth. Matthew Rozell is to be commended for his passion to the truth in history. I learned so much from reading his book.”
“Mr. Rozell travels ‘back to the future’ of people who were not promised a tomorrow; neither the prisoners nor the troops knew what horrors the next moment would bring. He captures the parallel experience of soldiers fighting ruthless Nazism and the ruthless treatment of Jewish prisoners.”
“Reading this story is exceptionally rewarding because it is not only a history lesson; the author tells the story through not only the annals of history, but by personally engaging with the characters of the story, in real time. This is a story and a personal journey and well worth the read.”
“As an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker I am always looking for good stories; stories that move the heart as well as the mind. This book does that in spades. From the first page to the last it rivets you to the passion of the author’s journey and to the story of the people of whom he writes about. This story is a shining example of the good that people can do to help their fellow man. It is a story of a man who has followed his heart and mind to accomplish great things for others.”-Michael J. Edwards, Searching For Augusta (PBS)
评论前必须登录！
立即登录 注册