The Train to Life

8/14/2019 The Train to Life

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The PersecutorsGermany, April 13, 1945

The Allied Armies were sweeping acrossGermany, alarming the Nazis. Evidence oftheir satanic deeds had to be quicklyeliminated. The evidence was a mass ofdead and dying Jews. German soldiers,terrified of Allied retribution, sentthousands of Jews on death marches fromone concentration camp to another, deeperinto Germany. The Germans cunningly

planned on burying their barbaric crimesalong with the still-living skeletons. Withminimal clothing and food, many victimsdied along the way.

In Bergen-Belsen, originally a prisoner-of-war camp that quickly degenerated intoa five-section concentration camp, therewas much evidence to eliminate. The Britishforces were only days away. Hurriedly,countless weakened Jewish prisoners werecrammed into suffocating freight cars, a fewonto passenger cars, and were sent away

from the site of their living nightmare. Thesingle purpose of the train trips was todispose of the helpless victims who wouldserve as proof of the Germans devilishdeeds.

The frail occupants of one such train,whose destination was the Theresienstadtconcentration camp located inCzechoslovakia, experienced anextraordinary escape from certain death.

As it was heading eastward toward theElbe River, news reached the German traincrew that the Soviet army was approaching.The trains direction was hastily reversed,and then it was stalled at Farsleben,Germany, to await further orders.

The next update was soon received; theAmericans were advancing from the west.With their enemies closing in on both sides,the German train engineers were instructedto plunge the train into the Elbe River.Along with the death of all the Jewish

occupants, mostly women and children,this would be suicide for the estimated 200German personnel on board.

Not wishing to die, they did not obey theorder. The train stood idle on its tracks in alittle valley in Farsleben; the train engineerswere unsure of what to do next.

The LiberatorsAs the carnage in Europe raged, a great

breakthrough for the Allied Armies camewith the successful invasion of Normandy,France, on June 6, 1944. British andAmerican naval and air task forcesorganized a mass transport of troops andsupplies across the English Channel andconstructed ingenious artificial harbors inorder to dock along the coastal beaches ofNazi-ruled France.

After liberating Paris, the Allied forces

The Train to LiBy Dina Kupfer


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Even as Holocaust memories fade intothe past, clouded by the turbulence of the present, dramatic stories are still

unfolding. In the astonishing story presented here, people of today becomeconnected by the events of yesterday,and memories that must live on are

shaken loose. We are obligated tosafeguard every painful yet preciousnarrative, for each one tells the history

of our nation and the wonder of our survival. Each story is also theconfirmation of Hashems lovingkindnesseven during trying times.


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right in the front anyway, the first in theline. We were hungry and sore.

The road went through a forest, and Iasked my father if I could eat an acorn froma tree. He said I should ask a soldier if Icould pick one. I was allowed to leave theline and I went to get one, but it was sourand bitter. I still have the taste in my mouth.

Then we arrived at the train. We heardmention of Theresienstadt, also calledTerezin. There were mainly cattle cars, butthere was one passenger car, an old Belgianmodel with benches. We went in there andit got so crowded! There was an elderlyperson who had bad legs. She was put inthe luggage area.

The next morning we were driven out.The train stopped a number of times. Wetraveled for about six days, the children, the

elderly We didnt have food for a fewdays at a time. Not even water.

Mr. Yaakov Singer, a resident of BoroPark since 1959, was a young child of four.His older sister, Mrs. Brocha Biegeleisen,was eight years old. With a voice that stillreveals strong emotion, he asserts, Mymemory of it is very vivid, as opposed toanything beforehand. Everything before is amurky puddle of pain, hunger, and terror.That terror... we were hunted down everyday.

Their family was originally in theBochnia ghetto, near Cracow in Galicia,Poland, where Nazis were gunning downscores of Jews on a whim. Their father wasable to escape the roundups and acquirepriceless forged Argentinean papers.Argentina was a neutral country allied with

Germany, and the Germans were wary ofharming any of its citizens so as not to

jeopardize their political relationship. Oncethe small Singer family showed theiracquired papers, they were deported toBergen-Belsen. Although later it alsobecame a concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen was originally a prisoner-of-warcamp that also held those of foreign birthwhom the Germans hoped to trade for

some of the German soldiers who had beencaptured.

After suffering in Bergen-Belsen fortwo years, the Singer family was nowbeing evacuated by train. As the oldtrain chugged along, bombs raineddown all around it. When a dogfightbroke out in the air aboveit, the sky was bright withexplosions. At one pointeveryone clambered outof the train to take coverin a ditch alongside thetracks. That the train

itself was not hit byAllied ammunition wasmiraculous since it wasa strategic objective.

The then-young Mr.Singer suddenly remembered that in therush to get off the beleaguered train, hisfather had left behind a small sefer Torah,given to him for safekeeping by theesteemed Rabbi Burack* of Belgium. RabbiBurack had remained in Bergen-Belsenwith his wife because his daughter had

contracted tuberculosis and he would notleave her behind. The rabbi asked that ifthey somehow survived, they should takethe sefer Torah to a shul. With his fatherbehind him, Mr. Singer raced back into thetrain to retrieve the holy Torah, and onlythen took cover in a nearby ditch.

Mr. Singer and Mrs. Biegeleisenremember how those who had managedto hold on to treasured photos of their

missing family members crowded aroundthe American heroes after the liberation,showing them the weathered picturesand hoping and praying that perhapsthey had seen them. Their own fathergave one of the soldiers a small, preciouspicture of his missing wife. The warvictims did not yet know the scope of theHolocaust and the unlikelihood that theAllied troops had encountered their

relatives. In December of that year, Mrs.Singers photograph was mailed back to

them. On the back, the soldier hadwritten, George T. Canfield, California,U.S., 12/445, Best Luck. Unfortunately,their mother had been taken to the Belzecextermination camp, from which so few

are known to have come out alive.Every Seder night

afterward, theirmomentous liberationwas always a topic ofdiscussion for Mr.Singers father and his

family. Although theirpersonal yetzias Mitzrayimwas exhilarating, Mr.Singer is quick to add, We

mourn for the six millionYidden who perished, and alwaysremember the survivors who suffered soterribly, both physically and emotionally,due to the deprivation, torture, and terror.

Mr. Singer is also very mindful of theAmerican blessing of freedom, which hasenabled American Jewry to thrive. He feels

strongly that one should have deepappreciation and respect for America,especially when current events in Europeprove that hostility toward Jews has notdisappeared. Given the unimaginabletragedies of the Holocaust and the currentgrowth of vibrant Jewish communities, hewishes more tribute would be paid to theAmerican liberators who helped manysurvive. He remembers clearly their

Finding the long train of grimy cars filledwith gaunt bodies, packed sixty and seventy

to a car, the Allied soldiers were stunned.

Liberated Jews who had spilled out of theboxcars located at the back of the train.

George Canfields handwrittennote to the Singer family.


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kindness as they distributed chocolate barsand chewing gum to the starving children,and their wonderful-smelling shavinglotion.

Mrs. Dina Spira, whose future husbandand in-laws, the Bluzhever Rebbe, HaravYisrael Spira and his Rebbetzin, zichronamlivrachah, were on the train, shared somelesser-known details about the experience,which have become a cherished familystory.

When the Germans called for those whowanted to leave Bergen-Belsen to board thedeparting trains, the Bluzhever Rebbe,ruled that it was permissible to travel awayfrom Bergen-Belsen on Shabbos as it was acase of pikuach nefesh,when saving a lifeoverrules the usual halachos. Their onlychance for survival lay in getting on that

train, and the Rebbe boarded it as well.At one point on the overcrowded,

rocking train, the conductor sent forRabbiner Spira, since he spoke German.When he came forward, the Germanunexpectedly offered the Rebbe a seat,which he declined. The German beganspeaking of his kindness to Jews. This washis preface to the news that although hewas being ordered to kill all the trainoccupants at the Elbe River, he wasstalling so the Allied troops could reach

them first.Before they had the chance to speak any

further, other German officers arrived.Seeing a Jew in a place where he clearly didnot belong, they furiously demanded toknow why the rabbi was standing there.The Rebbe responded immediately that thechildren on board were wailing for bread,putting them in danger of being heard bythe Allied forces. The Germanscontemptuously arranged for bread, sayingthat by the next day the Jews would not

need bread.After returning hastily to his car, theRebbe was again called to the front of thetrain. The conductor informed him of asudden change of plans. As the Elbe Riverwas no longer reachable, he was beingordered to stop at the nearest town, whereall the trains occupants would bemurdered.

Weighed down by this dire news, the

Rav managed to communicate it quietly totwo young men he spotted. Because theyseemed to be in better physical conditionthan the rest of the weakened passengers,he thought they could escape by leaping offthe train and taking cover in the forest.

The two men agreed, but as theywere making their desperategetaway toward the forest, theyheard a tanks rumble. Fearingthat it was Germans, they hid.As soon as they realized it wasan Allied force, they rushedforward. There were twoAmerican soldiers in the tank.When they recognized the mensstriped prisoner rags, they put theirready weapons down and listenedto the mens pleas that they save the nearby

train filled with war victims slated to bemurdered.

The American soldiers were forgingahead. One soldier hesitated since heedingthe cries of these desperate men woulddelay them in fulfilling their orders. Theother, a Jew named Pinchus Kohn, argued,persuading his fellow soldier to spare thetime and save the occupants of the train.(Later, Kohn kept up a correspondencewith the Bluzhever Rebbe and visited himseveral times over the years.)

The two American soldiers met the trainas it was coming to a stop in the nearesttown, Farsleben. Seeing an enemy tankapproaching, the Germans abandoned theirdeadly plans.

[This account varies from the original insome details. Because the entire unit wasadvancing toward Magdeburg, this isunderstood to be another American tankthat followed closely before or after MajorBenjamins tank.]

Having been saved at the last moment in

Farsleben and then taken to recuperate inHillersleben, the previous BluzheverRebbetzin would say about the train

journey that she had experienced,Everything was zum leben, to life. She wasa pillar of optimism and couragethroughout that time of unbearablehardship.

The Link Hudson Falls High School, New York July 31, 2001

At a high school in upstate New York, alongtime history teacher, Mr. Matthew

Rozell, noticed that with the passageof time there were progressively

fewer students responding tohis query about relatives whowere veterans of World WarII. Realizing that a generationwas rapidly disappearing, hecommitted himself to

recording personal accounts ofheroes who were still alive. This

expanded into a remarkableproject.

In 2001, one students grandfather, a

veteran named Carrol Walsh, was invitedto Mr. Rozells history class to speak abouthis wartime experiences. Toward the endof the interview, Mr. Walshsgranddaughter asked if he had mentionedthe train story. Mr. Walsh shared thatwhile commanding a tank in the 743rdBattalion, he had accompanied MajorClarence Benjamin and George Gross toinvestigate a train that had stopped on thetracks.

All of these people, men, women,

children, jam-packed in those boxcars Icouldnt believe my eyes... So now theyknew they were free, they were liberated.That was a nice, nice thing. I was there fora while that afternoon. You know, you gotto feed these people. Give them water.They [were] in bad shape. Major Benjamin

Mr. Matthew Rozell


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took some pictures, and George Gross tooksome pictures too. I have copies of thosepictures. [T]hey are down in Florida.

Meticulous about record-keeping andpassionate about disseminatinginformation, Mr. Rozell posted theinterview on the schools site, along with awritten review of the trains liberation,titled A Train Near Magdeburg, byGeorge Gross.**

A Holocaust survivor living inAustralia who remembered little of hertragic childhood contacted the Bergen-Belsen Memorial. She was provided withlimited information, but one employee,who had just read the train write-up,directed her to Mr. Rozells Living Historysite. She is one of more than sixty othersurvivors of the Farsleben train who have

since contacted Mr. Rozell. The train storywas experiencing a revival.

The Hudson Falls High School projectwas taken to an entirely new level. Inconjunction with the still-active Mr. FrankTowers of the 30th Infantry Division, andmost recently the United States HolocaustMemorial Museum, Mr. Rozell and hisstudents have organized four reunions.They brought together train survivors andtheir heroic liberators in an emotionalembrace. The most recent reunion, an

impressive three-day symposium, beganon September 23, 2009, in the Hudson FallsHigh School auditorium.

Mr. Frank Towers, a liberator, historian,editor, and now president of The 30thInfantry Division Veterans of World War IIorganization, says simply but forcefully,

It is a fascinating story and should be toldall over our country, to make the youngergeneration aware of what reallyhappened and it did happen. It was nota myth.

In a phone interview, Mr. Rozellresponded thoughtfully to inquiries aboutthe importance of his work and anypersonal link he might have to theHolocaust or World War II.

I dont, I dont [have any personallink]. People ask me the question. Im not

Jewish, and Im not the son of a World WarII soldier or anything. Its important for meas a history teacher to capture as manystories as possible before time runs out, topreserve history before its lost. And thehistory began weaving into this amazingstory.

Twenty years ago, Holocaust materialwasnt much out there. When I was astudent, it was covered in twenty minutes.With students, theres definitely a sparkwhen you speak of the greatest crime

against humanity. Students are keen topick up on injustice. It resonates withthem. When they meet [survivors], theymake a connection, although they cantrelate to it because they never experiencedanything like it. Its obvious it wont bepossible in five to ten years.

Although none of the survivorsinterviewed here participated in thehistoric reunions, several were invited,and they have corresponded with Mr.Rozell and the war veterans, saluting their

noble endeavors. Mrs. Spira and Mrs.Biegeleisen did so after reading Hamodiasnewspaper coverage of the secondreunion. They are both Holocaust studiesteachers at Brooklyn schools and havefound a mission in educating Jewish girls,most of whom are descendants ofsurvivors, about the war era. They explainto students that they are a link between thepast and the future, inspiring them toemulate some of what was lost with the

tragic death of the many kedoshim.As a result of the storys revival, Mrs.

Biegeleisen attempted to locate George T.Canfield, the soldier who had thoughtfullymailed back the photo of her mother.Although her search was not successful,she is happy to have made contact with theothers involved in the wondrous story.

For all the survivors, the liberation ofthe train is marked indelibly in their

memories as the day of their rebirth. Theyall repeatedly expressed gratitude toward

their liberators, fully cognizant that it is inthe merit of these G-d-sent messengersthat they lived to raise their own beautifulfamilies. One survivor said poignantly,In the summer, when I [was] in thecountry, if I was taking my kids on a trainride invariably, I spoke of that trainride.

Through the enthusiastic work of onededicated history teacher and his students,survivors and liberators, now scatteredaround the globe, were reunited decades

later. The trains journey to a darkdestination became a journey to life,mercifully rescued by Divine Providencethrough the heroic American troops.

Authors Note:

Covering this extraordinary story was a moving and humbling experience. I would like toexpress deep gratitude to these exceptionalpeople who graciously shared their time andsentiments with me: Mrs. Bracha Biegeleisen,Mrs. Tonka Landau, Mr. Matthew Rozell, Mrs.Dina Spira, Mr. Frank Towers, Mr. Benjamin Zev

Vorst, Mr. Chesky Weingarten, and Mr. Yaakov Singer.

*Readers who can provide a first name can [email protected]** Mr. Gross, who took the historic photographsafter the train was liberated, passed away onFebruary 1, 2009.

While most of the train was made up of boxcars,here we see the compartment cars. After theywere liberated, some of the men walked up thishill to recite Hallel , as it was Rosh Chodesh Iyar.Others made their way up this hill to lay down.Unfortunately, some never woke up.

As the two men were making theirdesperate getaway toward the forest,they heard a tanks rumble and hid.

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The Train to Life