International Holocaust Remembrance with Matthew Rozell

Original Program Date: January 29, 2023

About the Program:

The community gathered as we commemorated  International Holocaust Remembrance Day and  heard renowned author and educator, Matthew Rozell, share the story behind A Train Near Magdeburg.

On April 13, 1945, two tank commanders of the 743rd Tank Battalion and their major overran a train transport near Magdeburg, Germany, filled with 2,500 Jewish concentration camp victims from Bergen-Belsen. This set into motion a chain of events that would culminate in survivors and liberators being reunited six decades later by a dedicated educator and reflecting on what happened.

Matthew Rozell’s presentation touched on his efforts to reunite his Holocaust survivor friends with their actual American soldier liberators, but more importantly will focus on the moral lessons imparted by the soldiers’ actions in those closing days of World War II, and the disturbing underlying question of the Holocaust – just how did humanity allow six million Jews to be murdered?

Exhibits and programs presented in part with the generous support of the following: