Another survivor of the train near Magdeburg appears. International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 2012. I hope she finds her way to this site so she can meet her actual liberators! Thanks for Leslie Meisels for tipping us off to the article. Aliza’s memoir of life in the Warsaw Ghetto and beyond is very moving and can be found here.

“The American soldiers didn’t know what to do and they showered us with chocolates and cigarettes.”

Aliza Vitis-Shomron on Thursday vividly recalled her brush with death on the eve of her liberation from the Nazis in 1945.

The survivor, who spoke on a panel at the Kibbutz Yad Mordechai Holocaust Museum the day before the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day, said a rumor had spread among the group of Jewish prisoners she was part of in Poland that they were about to be murdered.

Rather than surrendering them to the Allies closing in from the east and west, the prisoners feared their captors were planning to plunge their train into the Elbe River and drown everyone.

“Panic and fear spread quickly,” recalled the Polish-born Israeli who survived the Warsaw Ghetto and the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. “Just as we were at the point of despair, two American tanks came rolling down a hill and saved us.”

The feeble Jewish prisoners emerged from the train and embraced the stunned soldiers of the US 30th Armored Division.

the tank commanders who freed her.

“We were crying with joy,” she said. “The American soldiers didn’t know what to do and they showered us with chocolates and cigarettes.”

Vitis-Shomron said she did not feel that she had defeated the Nazis.

“I did not triumph,” said Vitis-Shomron, an educator who has four great-grandchildren.

“What happened accompanies me, but I try to live and live well. I try to teach humanitarian values to our youths. We must never do upon others what was done to us.”

The panel Vitis-Shomron was part of at Yad Mordechai, the kibbutz named after the leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Mordechai Anielewicz), included Simcha “Kojak” Rotem, who fought in the uprising, and former defense minister Moshe Arens.

It was one of many events held in Israel and around the world commemorating the remembrance day.

On Wednesday, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor, American Jewish Committee Executive Director David Harris and members of the newly formed World Forum of Russian Jewry met at United Nations headquarters to honor the memory of those killed by the Nazis.

The AJC head said the lesson learned from the murder of six million Jews required the world to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear capabilities.

“This past September, indeed on these grounds, the notorious Holocaust denier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, spoke,” Harris said. “To their credit, several UN member ambassadors walked out, but, shamefully, the majority stayed in the General Assembly hall and applauded his remarks.”

The president of the World Forum of Russian Jewry, Ukrainian businessman Alexander Levin, joined the call urging the UN to take action against the Islamic Republic.

More Holocaust memorial events are planned for Israel and around the world on Friday.

Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and ambassadors from more than a dozen countries including Germany, the US, Egypt and the Philippines are set to gather at the Massuah Institute for Holocaust Studies at Kibbutz Tel Yitzhak near Netanya to take part in a memorial ceremony.

The UN designated January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005. It is marked by governments and organizations around the world.

Israel, however, observes its official Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 26th of Nissan, the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, according to the Jewish calendar. Its selection reflects the Jewish state’s preference to emphasize Jewish resistance to the Nazis.

http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=255355

Steve passed away yesterday, January 16th, 2012, after a long and difficult ordeal from injuries sustained in an automobile accident in September. I’ll always remember his special Christmas and Easter cards that he sent to me, made personally on his computer; his funny, self depreciating humor; and above all his overwhelming happiness at being able to finally meet the men who saved him. I hope that the memories sustain his wife Stella and his children and their families, and also the friends that he made later in life and became soulmates with- soldiers Carrol Walsh and Frank Towers, the soldiers who arrived on the scene to free him and help him begin his life anew.

Matthew Rozell, Stephen Barry, National DOR Ceremony, Washington, DC April 2010. This photo was taken the day after the 65th anniversary of Steve's liberation in April 1945. We had just been honored by the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum before the national ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.

I will leave you with a few of his words-and we will remember. Thanks, Steve, for all that you gave us, and for passing the torch to a new generation of students to carry your message forth.

An earlier post… The Holocaust Survivor and the US Army Ranger…

A fantastic national radio interview that I helped to arrange, knowing he would be the perfect speaker…

And the educational films I constructed from them.

Here is a man whose memory I will use to guide me in the rest of my career, and I hope my life.

Teaching history is the theme of this website, but truly, it does not matter what one teaches. Here is the consummate teacher who knew that the bottom line for all educators is be happy and in touch with the moment, and by extension seemingly effortlessly creating  better human beings in living by example, touching and molding young lives, forever. What other occupation is as important?

Rest on, friend. I’ll keep you close.

Brent J. Bertrand passed away the morning of Tuesday, January 10, 2012. A Hudson Falls native born on February 5, 1958, Brent graduated from Hudson Falls High School in 1976. He earned an Associate’s degree from Cobleskill College in 1978 and a Bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Oswego in 1982 before embarking on a very rewarding teaching career with the Warrensburg Central School District. He earned his Master’s degree from the State University of New York at Albany in 1988.

As a high school technology teacher, Brent shared his passion as a craftsman with countless students during his many years in Warrensburg. In teaching his students to shape rough lumber into polished furniture, he instilled in the students and those around him the patience and discipline of doing things the right way and of taking pride in one’s accomplishments. His “measure twice, cut once” philosophy was his simple way of expressing the valuable life lesson of thinking before acting.

A natural born educator, Brent’s devotion extended beyond the classroom on to the athletic fields. “Coach” Bertrand spent many seasons on the Warrensburg softball fields teaching students the life lessons of success and failure on the playing field. Displaying a consistent approach to teaching in both the classroom and the ball field, Brent urged his student athletes to “practice how you play” as yet another example of doing things the right way and taking pride in what one does.

Warrensburg was a very special community for Brent. Always with a friendly smile and a genuine interest and concern for others, he shared his dedication to education and to the Warrensburg students with the other employees in the school district. He prided himself on arriving early, being available and accessible to all and never missing a day of work. He became an integral member of the Warrensburg community and valued the relationships and friendships he developed over the years.

Brent was equally as dedicated to and compassionate about his family as he was to his profession. As one of seven siblings, he developed a strong work ethic and sense of commitment, responsibility and fairness during his formative years, traits that he exemplified throughout his life. He shared his love for the farm and the lake with his parents, siblings and their spouses, and his nieces and nephews, and realized the importance and meaning of the farm and the lake as the place for the family to gather.

Brent was predeceased by his father, Frank L. Bertrand. He is survived by his mother, Jane L. Bertrand; his sister, Susan Semiz; his brothers, Bruce, Frank, Matthew, Michael and Peter; his brother-in-law, John Semiz; sisters-in-law, Jane Bertrand, Patricia Bertrand and Sally Bertrand; his girlfriend, Missy Ackley; and several nieces and nephews who idolized and adored their Uncle Brent.

Friends may call on Brent’s family from 3-6 pm, Friday, January 13, 2012 at Alexander-Baker Funeral Home, 3809 Main Street, Warrensburg.

I never met Gina, but did finally meet her family on my visit to Israel last May.

Gina was the only survivor who has been positively identified by the soldiers themselves- in this case, George C. Gross, who took a photo of her in front of his tank on April 13th, 1945, before moving out to fight the final battle at Magdeburg. He always wondered what had become of her. I would challenge you to read the last paragraph of his narrative, especially. Then refer to the photo above.

Gina passed away this week. I think that George Gross, who passed in 2009,  helped to welcome her home.

From the website:
Sgt. George Gross (relayed to Matthew Rozell, March, 2002):

I spent part of the afternoon (13 April 1945) listening to the story of Gina Rappaport, who had served so well as interpreter. She was in the Warsaw ghetto for several years as the Nazis gradually emptied the ghetto to fill the death camps, until her turn finally came. She was taken to Bergen-Belsen, where the horrible conditions she described matched those official accounts I later heard. She and some 2500 others, Jews from all over Europe, Finnish prisoners of war, and others who had earned the enmity of Nazidom, were forced onto the train and taken on a back-and-forth journey across Germany, as their torturers tried to get them to a camp where they could be eliminated before Russians on one side or Americans on the other caught up with them. Since the prisoners had little food, many died on the purposeless journey, and they had felt no cause for hope when they were shunted into this little unimportant valley siding. Gina told her story well, but I have never been able to write it. I received a letter from her months later, when I was home in San Diego. I answered it but did not hear from her again. Her brief letter came from Paris, and she had great hopes for the future. I trust her dreams were realized.

We were relieved the next morning, started up the tank, waved good-bye to our new friends, and followed a guiding jeep down the road to rejoin our battalion. I looked back and saw a lonely Gina Rappaport standing in front of a line of people waving us good fortune. On an impulse I cannot explain, I stopped the tank, ran back, hugged Gina, and kissed her on the forehead in a gesture I intended as one asking forgiveness for man’s terrible cruelty and wishing her and all the people a healthy and happy future. I pray they have had it.

Today I had every intention to read aloud these paragraphs from Dr. Gross’ testimony to my 4th block tenth graders . I made it as far as the last two sentences, and had to stop, go back to my desk, and compose myself for a moment…when I passed around these two photographs and Eran’s email, the kids understood…of course I reminded them that I was still a “tough guy”.

From my inbox, a week after the reunion…

Dear Madam /Sir,

I am referring to your amazing World War II project (http://www.hfcsd.org/ww2/).

Mr. George Gross whose testimony is found in your site mentions the story of Gina Rappaport (and includes her photo) who happens to be my mother (!).

She survived the Holocaust and emigrated to Israel where she lives until today. In 1947 she married to my father  and gave birth to two children, my brother Giora and myself.

Could you please provide me with contact information of Mr. Gross? I would like to contact him as soon as possible.

Many thanks for your help!

Sincerely yours,
Eran
Jerusalem, Israel.

The follow up:

Dear Matthew,

Thanks for your letter and for this fascinating project which is highly important for my entire family!
I am enclosing a photograph taken yesterday showing my mother reading for the first time Dr. Gross’s article and watching her own photo in front of the tank.

With kind regards,

Eran

Hmm, sounds like a conspiracy to me. Sorry about the trauma, so as he wishes, here is what he left to be published on this site, with my responses.

Hello, I came here after reading Dan Porat’s The Boy, where some of the Hillersleben photos feature.

Hi. Yes, I was consulted by the author, and helped him get some of the photos of the liberation- which was at Farsleben, not Hilersleben.

Maybe I am missing something here, but the people on this train don’t look like walking skeletons to me. German civilian rations were 1600 calories pro Tag 1944/1945, so the fact that the photos you present show individuals that look slim but hardly starved seems to undermine your central thesis – namely History Matters. Clearly, you don’t think so or you would use your material more carefully.

"A woman and two children rest next to a stopped train" 4-14-2011 by Harry E. Boll. USHMM Archives.

Clearly, it was not I, but a soldier who referred to the victims he cared for as “walking skeletons”.  Also, these ” slim”  individuals were so weak that many could hardly stand- again, more eyewitness liberator testimony. Maybe the soldiers are lying, something that has been suggested by skeptics before. Several “slim people” are lying dead on the hillside in the background- and the skeptic has missed the point that the ones physically able to pose for a photograph have done so. Many more could not even get out of the cars without assistance-many were dead inside the cars, literally falling out on top of horrified soldiers as they slide open the doors-something the skeptic would have learned had he/she been more thorough in his research of my work. Perhaps he would suggest that the boys in the photo to the left, taken by US forces the day after liberation, are the picture of health. And thanks for bringing in the plight of the unfortunate German civilians. Perhaps we should compare suffering here as well.

Secondly, don’t you think you are being rather disrepectful of the sacrifice shown by the American GI by continually reducing their experience down to the liberation of some detainees on a train. It verges on insulting to continually insist that people who repeatedly saw their buddies being blown away would privilege the experience of 2500 Jewish people on a train who don’t look starved at all

I think a little ironic that the post above  the one that the skeptic commented on mentions the sacrifice and not the train liberation at all(“Hell came in like a freight train. I heard an explosion and went back to where my friend was.” 67 yrs. ago this week.), a common thread throughout my work, which he must have run across if he used the link in Porat’s book to get to this site. And it is also stated at the bottom of my “About” page, which the skeptic should take the time to read before invoking one’s “skepticism”, that “if you are a Holocaust denier/minimizer/revisionist, and/or run-of-the-mill hate spewer, thank you in advance for sparing  me your epistles… I’ve already heard it all.“  It really can get tiring, but thanks for writing to remind me that I have a better job to do. Sadly, I’ll also be adding the word “skeptic” to my list.

"Both the enemy and the weather could kill you, and the two of them together was a pretty deadly combination." Bulge veteran Bart Hagerman. Photo: George Silk/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Dec 20, 1944

The morning of December 16, 1944. A lonely outpost on the Belgian frontier.

In subzero temperatures, the last German counteroffensive of World War II had begun. Nineteen thousand American lives would be lost in the Battle of the Bulge. “Hell came in like a freight train. I heard an explosion and went back to where my friend was. His legs were blown off-he bled to death in my arms.” The average age of the American “replacement” soldier? 19.

Of the sixteen million American men and women who served in WWII, four and a quarter hundred thousand died on the field of conflict. In 2011, nearly 1000 veterans of World War II quietly slip away every day. The national memory of the war that did more than any other event in the last century to shape the history of the American nation is dying with them. The Germans threw 250,000 well trained troops and tanks against a lightly defended line on the Ardennes frontier in Belgium and Luxembourg, which created a pocket or “bulge” in the Allied offensive line, the objective being to drive to the port of Antwerp to split the American and British advance and force a separate peace with the Western Allies. What ensued was the bloodiest battle in American history. It saddens me that it comes as a shock to many Americans today that the “Battle of the Bulge” didn’t originate as a weight-loss term.

On a personal note, I have had the privilege of interviewing many of the veterans of this battle. In the high school where I teach, I have been inviting veterans to my classroom to share their experiences with our students. As their numbers dwindled, I smartened up, bought a camera, and began to record their stories. And for the past decade, I have been sending kids out into the field to record the stories of World War II before this generation fades altogether. These men and women have helped to spark students’ interest in finding out more about our nation’s past and the role of the individual in shaping it. On our website we have worked to weave the stories of our community’s sacrifices into the fabric of our national history. And that, to me, is what teaching history should be all about. After all, if we allow ourselves to forget about the teenager who bled to death in his buddy’s arms, if we overlook the sacrifices it took to make this nation strong and proud, we may as well forget everything else. I shudder for this country when I see what we have all forgotten, so soon. But if you are taking the time to read this post I suppose I am preaching to the saved.

I will close with the account of a nineteen year old infantryman who in fact survived the battle and the war, and who I was able to introduce to many Hudson Falls students on more than one occasion. Sixty-seven years ago this week, a day began that would forever change his life.  Frank is now the only living Medal of Honor recipient from World War II left in New York State and New England.

In the winter of 1944, nineteen year old Private First Class Currey’s infantry squad was fighting the Germans in the Belgian town of Malmédy to help contain the German counteroffensive in the Battle of the Bulge. Before dawn on December 21, Currey’s unit was defending a strong point when a sudden German armored advance overran American antitank guns and caused a general withdrawal. Currey and five other soldiers—the oldest was twenty-one—were cut off and surrounded by several German tanks and a large number of infantrymen. They began a daylong effort to survive.

The six GIs withdrew into an abandoned factory, where they found a bazooka left behind by American troops. Currey knew how to operate one, thanks to his time in Officer Candidate

Francis Currey MOH and Ned Rozell March 2010-Ned is friends with the last WWII Medal of Honor recipient in NY and NE, Frances Currey. Yes, the special edition GI Joe he signed for Ned is 19 yr. old Frank!

School, but this one had no ammunition. From the window of the factory, he saw that an abandoned half-track across the street contained rockets. Under intense enemy fire, he ran to the half-track, loaded the bazooka, and fired at the nearest tank. By what he would later call a miracle, the rocket hit the exact spot where the turret joined the chassis and disabled the vehicle.

Moving to another position, Currey saw three Germans in the doorway of an enemy-held house and shot all of them with his Browning Automatic Rifle. He then picked up the bazooka again and advanced, alone, to within fifty yards of the house. He fired a shot that collapsed one of its walls, scattering the remaining German soldiers inside. From this forward position, he saw five more GIs who had been cut off during the American withdrawal and were now under fire from three nearby German tanks. With antitank grenades he’d collected from the half-track, he forced the crews to abandon the tanks. Next, finding a machine gun whose crew had been killed, he opened fire on the retreating Germans, allowing the five trapped Americans to escape.

Deprived of tanks and with heavy infantry casualties, the enemy was forced to withdraw. Through his extensive knowledge of weapons and by his heroic and repeated braving of murderous enemy fire, Currey was greatly responsible for inflicting heavy losses in men and material on the enemy, for rescuing 5 comrades, 2 of whom were wounded, and for stemming an attack which threatened to flank his battalion’s position.

At nightfall, as Currey and his squad, including the two seriously wounded men, tried to find their way back to the American lines, they came across an abandoned Army jeep fitted out with stretcher mounts. They loaded the wounded onto it, and Currey, perched on the jeep’s spare wheel with a Browning automatic rifle in his hand, rode shotgun back to the American lines.

After the war in Europe had officially ended, Major General Leland Hobbs made the presentation on July 27, 1945, at a division parade in France.

source material “Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier.

Frank signs autographs at our school.

Soldiers Walsh and Gross discover the train and save them, Towers transports them to safety and out of harm’s way, Gantz stays with them and nurses them back to health, or buries them at the cemetery in Hilersleben…

Later, I found this newspaper article below.

Innocence of youth helped Walter ‘Babe’ Gantz treat wounded soldiers, concentration camp survivors

Walter “Babe” Gantz has a ready explanation for how he coped with the horrors of war.

“I was young and carefree, as they say. And foolish, perhaps,” he said with a chuckle.

He was also very brave.

The South Scranton man spent World War II serving as a combat medic with the 9th Army’s 95th Medical Battalion. A surgical team technician, he treated infantrymen suffering from a litany of unspeakable battle injuries, earning the Combat Medics Badge, Bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal in the process.

The program is open to all middle and high school teachers, preferably with some experience in teaching the Holocaust.  There is no cost to attend the conference.  Registration is required and space is limited.

Featured Speakers:

Frank Towers

Dr. Paul Fleming

Link: http://tnholcom.org/news.php?id=38

HOUR OF LIBERATION

 this was read at the final banquet this year to a hushed gathering of survivors, soldiers, their families, and our students. . Thanks to all for making it very special.

Robert H Miller photo. Final banquet, 9-23-11.

I very much regret that I won’t be with you at the reunion.  Please convey this statement that I wanted to share with you about my hour of liberation which has been on my mind for 64 years.  My name is Martin Spett.  I was born in Tarnow, Poland.  My family and I survived the Tarnow Ghetto, slave labor, a political prison, and two years in Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp.

It was April 7, 1945. as the American and British armies were closing in on the area where Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp was located.  Five hundred people, including my family and myself, were forced to leave our Sonderlager compound. and forced to march 7 km. to a train.  Although I was ill with double pneumonia, I forced myself to follow and keep up with the group.  We boarded the train which already had 2,000 people aboard.  Because of the surrounding allied armies, the train circled for several days.   It stopped in a forest area near the Elbe river.  We were not able to reach our real destination because of the bombed out bridges.  We found out later that we were supposed to go to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp.

The German commandant, who was in charge of the train, not knowing what to do with us, went to a nearby village to call Berlin for instructions.  When he returned, we found out that he had orders to kill everyone aboard the train.  You have to visualize this situation.  Here we were in the middle of a forest with seventy German guards that set up heavy machine guns for our execution were waiting for orders from their commandant.  But, he apparently had a change of heart and did not wish to follow Berlin’s instructions because the American army was closing in on all sides.  During the night, we saw the German army retreating near our train and we saw the American army artillery fire that was aimed in our direction.  We huddled together in fear not knowing what our fate was.

The morning found us still on the train with only a small number of guards and a commandant who was waving to us from a bicycle as he was riding away.  It was a beautiful sunny morning in the forest.  All was calm and quiet.

Later that morning , we heard a loud metallic, rumbling sound.  A few minutes later, an American army tank came into view.  As the tank stopped, an American soldier came from behind the tank and he started walking down the hill towards the train.  He could only go a few steps when our people in their great excitement, fell before his feet, kissing him.  At that time, the German guards surrendered and we then realized that we were liberated.

The soldier stood there with tears in his eyes, telling us that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died the day before.  It was now April 13, 1945.

At this point, I would like to thank the brave American soldiers of the 30^th Infantry who rescued us from our Nazi oppressors.  Your brave deed has been in my heart for over 64 years.  I never forgot you.