Never Before Seen Film Showing the Sudden Liberation of Jews in a Cattle Car

 

The US National Archives recently published never-seen-before footage of the liberation of 2,500 Jews from a Nazi death train that was transporting them from Bergen-Belsen to Theresienstadt, Ynet reported on Monday.

The Nazi soldiers on the train had been ordered to blow the train up over the Elbe River if they couldn’t make it to Theresienstadt. However, when the Nazi cowards spotted American tanks on April 13, 1945, they fled and the Jews were liberated by soldiers from the 30th Division of the U.S. Army. A third of the train’s passengers were children.

Ynet quoted George Gross, the commander of the American tank: “Everyone looked like a skeleton, so starved, their faces sick. And there was something else. When they saw us, they began to laugh with joy, if you can call it laughter. It was more like an outburst of pure, almost hysterical relief.”

One of the US soldiers, Abraham Cohen, shouted to the Jews, ‘Ich bin oich a Yid’ and showed them his Magen Dovid necklace.

Many photos of the train’s liberation were published in the past but this is the first time a video was published. The clip was found in the U.S. National Archives during research for a documentary on the train’s liberation by Matthew Rozell, a New York history teacher and author.

“A few days ago, I received a message from Matthew that another miracle connected to the train had occurred,” said Varda Weisskopf, whose father was on the train. “I was in tears when I saw this clip.”

Death train survivor Jacob Barzilai, 90, who was 12 when the train was liberated, found himself, his mother and his sister in the video.

“We arrived at Bergen-Belsen as five people and only three of us returned. I lost my father and my grandfather there,” he said, as quoted by Ynet. “In the clip, I saw my mother, my sister and myself. It was the day of the train liberation on April 13, 1945. I was very emotional to see the footage. I was at a loss for words.”

“Our train was perhaps the most documented in the Holocaust. Its intended destination was to drown us in the Elbe, and the Americans prevented that. For years, I have seen countless photos of this train. But this is the first time I am seeing video footage.”