A video of American soldiers rescuing Jewish prisoners on a Nazi train has been uncovered by Holocaust researcher Matthew Rozell. According to Faithwire, Rozell found the footage while researching the U.S. National Archives. The video depicts what is known to many as the “Miracle at Farsleben.”
Faithwire reports that “the powerful redemption took place April 13, 1945, as a Nazi train was carrying some 2,500 Jews away from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp — where Jewish refugee Anne Frank had just been killed — toward Theresienstadt, where they would likely have met their death. According to reports from the time, the train was forced to stop near Farsleben because Allied troops were bombing the area. Generally, such an occurrence would have been deadly for the prisoners aboard the train, because Nazi soldiers were instructed to kill as many Jewish people as possible in the event the locomotive didn’t reach its final destination.” However, those aboard the train did not meet their deaths, but met the symbol of freedom and security as looked out to American soldiers who opened their doors.
Holocaust survivors and family members who watched the video have found either loved ones, or even their younger selves, in the footage. Jacob Barzilai, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor, shared that he saw his mother, sister, and himself in the video. Barzilai told YNet “I was very emotional seeing the footage. I was at a loss for words.”
Miriam Mueller, an 82-year-old survivor of the Holocaust responded to the video sharing that although she did not see her 4-year-old self, she remembers the miracle that God gave her and all aboard that train.
Rozell said after finding the footage, “I don’t want to say I am gratified or vindicated, because, even without this footage, this is an incredible story.”