A New York history educator restored a lost piece of history after unearthing harrowing footage that depicts US soldiers freeing Jewish people from a train bound for a Nazi death camp.
After the colorized clip was posted to YouTube, several Holocaust survivors came forward, claiming to recognize themselves and their family members in the video.
“I don’t want to say I am gratified or vindicated, because even without this footage, this is an incredible story,” said Matthew Rozell, a Holocaust researcher and decorated former history professor who had found the clip in the US National Archives, the Times Of Israel reported.
Dubbed “Miracle at Farsleben,” the rescue operation occurred on April 13, 1945, while a Nazi train was ferrying 2,500 Jewish prisoners from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp — where iconic Jewish refugee Anne Franke died just weeks earlier — to Theresienstadt.
The locomotive was reportedly forced to stop near the town of Farsleben as Allied forces were bombing the area.
This put the unwilling passengers in peril as the presiding SS officers had received instructions to execute as many of the captives as possible should they not reach their destination, the Independent reported.
Fortunately, the prisoners were saved after an American tank and Jeep appeared over the hill, whereupon a handful of Nazi guards fled the scene.
The American liberators then flung open the doors of the carriages and released the prisoners, undoubtedly saving them from the fate that befell some 6 million of their brethren.
While the Farsleben train rescue has been well-documented in pictures, this was the first time a video of the incident had been uncovered.
The accompanying silent footage, filmed by one of the soldiers, shows the gaunt and battered passengers sitting outside of the locomotive in tattered clothes during the aftermath of the rescue.
At one point, throngs of hungry rescues gather around a US soldier as he hands out cans of food. Another shot shows an emaciated, shirtless man crushing lice between his thumbnails.
“Everyone looked like a skeleton, so starved, their faces sick,” described presiding tank commander George Gross, who said the captives’ reaction was like an “outburst of pure, almost hysterical relief.”
Jewish media outlets have since tracked down some of the survivors of the Farsleben train incident, some of whom recognized themselves in the video.
“In the clip, I saw my mother, my sister and myself,” exclaimed Holocaust survivor Jacob Barzilai, 90 while speaking to Ynet about the experience. “I was very emotional seeing the footage. I was at a loss for words.”
Barzilai, who was 12 at the time, recalled that his father and grandfather were also with them when the family was captured but perished at Bergen-Belsen.
The video provided much-needed closure for the survivor, who, despite examining numerous photos of the rescue, had never found any visual documentation of himself or his family until now.
Meanwhile, Miriam Mueller, 82, who was four at the time of the ordeal, just saw the video last week. And while she didn’t see herself in the footage, “it brought up all sorts of memories,” the survivor told Ynet.
“I had a hard time breathing afterward,” she recalled. “I said that this cursed war is just endless. We keep returning to it.”
Mueller added, “Today, I have 26 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren, and there is another one on the way. The blessed Lord has performed a miracle with me.”
This video discovery marks perhaps a high water mark for Matthew Rozell, a former SUNY Geneseo professor who has spent years digging up as much info as possible on the Miracle at Farsleben, the Daily Mail reported.
The historian’s campaign culminated in a book titled “A Train Near Magdeburg: A Teacher’s Journey into the Holocaust” (2016), which inspired an ITV documentary series of the same name.
Ultimately, Rozell hopes that the video will help undermine the narrative of Holocaust deniers. “To actually see it is another nail in the coffin of Holocaust denial, we hope,” he said.