Your (non-Union) screenwriter here again…
Fans of this project — now people literally all over the world — write to me and ask “how it’s going.”
And I tell them it’s great, because it is, but I don’t often tell them how stressful it also is because, well, I think that sounds ungrateful. I feel so blessed to be a part of this project and would never want anyone to think otherwise.
But it is … challenging.
I work on this website and do other similar things when I start to feel overwhelmed by this script.
The other day a friend asked if this is, as she had theorized, mostly about trying to connect an enormous number of moving parts.
I said it is a 50,000-piece jigsaw puzzle and there’s no picture on the front of the box.
But now I think her image was stronger: it’s not just that there are so many pieces — they’re moving parts. Things connect to other things and make them what they are. Remove the first piece and the second piece stops working.
And so on.
And we keep learning new things! Even after 22 years of Matthew Rozell and others exploring this historical event and its extraordinary aftermath, there are still discoveries coming to light almost every day. Some of them have already changed our entire perspective on the story! So then we have to back up and reappraise all that we’ve set previously.
I’ve found a tremendous amount of guidance and solace from this book that I bought while at Yad Vashem. It is a detailed and lavishly illustrated account of Dorit Harel‘s monumental task of designing, inside and out, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
I recommend Facts and Feelings to anyone who is interested in the challenges of keeping forever alive the names and stories of the people whose lives were destroyed by this monstrous crime against humanity. You can find the book from second-hand sellers but also from Yad Vashem here.
Designing something like Yad Vashem would be an intimidating task for anyone! In the book she describes the artistic and philosophical challenges, perhaps the most heartbreaking of which was: what to include and what to leave out? Because no museum or memorial can possibly include, much less feature, every conceivable aspect of anything as far-reaching and long-lasting as the Shoah.
I feel, in a very humble way, a connection with Harel, because I am confronted with the same challenges. How do we present out story so it gives appropriate focus to all its many facets, and how do we do that without overwhelming, traumatizing, confusing, or boring our widely-varied audience?
While I’ve been grappling with these challenges, I’ve made a number of mistakes and omissions on this website! I’ve tried to correct them as quickly as they are pointed out to me, but same take longer than others.
So let me highlight here someone I accidentally overlooked when I started this website: Ron Chaulet! And that’s absurd because Ron has played a key role in two major aspects of our larger story.
On the night of April 13, 1945, one of the people freed from the train was Gina Rappaport. Fluent in multiple languages, she helped US Army tank commander George Gross communicate with the other people who’d been trapped in the train. She promised she would one day write a full account of her wartime experiences and send that to George. While at the hospital in Hillersleben, she did write the account (on Nazi letterhead because it was the best writing paper available!) — but it somehow get lost. Decades later, Ron found that document … and entered into the complex and fascinating world of the train near Magdeburg.
Ron dove into the research and into making connections with survivors, liberators, and anyone else who was interested.
Ron Chaulet’s interest and commitment resulted in something that will be here long after we who read this are gone: the Gedenkstein Farsleben — a memorial stone alongside the tracks where the train was abandoned.
The stone was erected and blessed in August of 2022. Several of the survivors from the train were there (including Mirjam Muller and John Fransman), our dear Johanna Mücke, both daughters of liberator Carrol “Red” Walsh, and many more.
Ron built a website that tells the whole story of the Memorial Stone and of the dedication event — read about it and see wonderful images at www.13april1945.com.
As I write this, Ron is pondering a reunion in Farsleben on April 13, 2025 — the 80th anniversary of the liberation event. We’ll keep you posted about that!
Another person I’ve accidentally slighted: Aliza Gilon!
Here’s what happened: while we were in Israel, I accompanied the video crew to all interviews and usually sat quietly in the corner, listened, and took notes. But when we got to Aliza’s beautiful home, there was no place in her living room where I was not either in the shot or casting a shadow. So I excused myself and went to another room to write.
Then when I returned to my notes to make these website posts, I forgot to include Aliza because she wasn’t in my notes!
But now I have made a page for her where it belongs on the timeline, based on what I learned from the people who were in the room at the time. See it all in the post We Interview Aliza Gilon — and as always, see also Matthew Rozell‘s blog post about the same meeting.
I feel certain there are other deserving people about whom I have so far written nothing. I promise I will correct all errors as I am made aware of them!