The big business of the summer has been in marketing our series based on the completed first episode. ITV representative Rob Kaplan has been pitching the story to the industry’s top markets and has been met with universal enthusiasm. And while we can’t disclose all the results of those negotiations right now, we can say that the future of A TRAIN NEAR MAGDEBURG is looking very bright!
In the meantime, we’ve completed a solid script for Episode Two and now we’re pulling together the audio and video elements that will bring the story to life.
Episode One ends on the night of April 13, 1945, with the people from the train, now seen and protected by the U.S. Army, waiting to learn their fate. Episode Two picks up there: many people from the train are literally starving to death and three armies are firing artillery shells over the area. Clearly all 2500 people need to be moved to safety — but to where?
Morning comes and with it comes the 30th Infantry Division’s men and machine. Liaison Officer Frank Towers played a key role in what happened next — and you’ll hear him share his vivid memories of every detail!
It’s not a “plot spoiler” to say that the urgently-needed safe place was the captured Luftwaffe base at Hillersleben — which included a hospital. One of the healers battling to save the lives of the former prisoners there was a very young man named Walter “Babe” Gantz — and as with Towers, you’ll hear Gantz tell all about the things he saw, and did, and felt during that time.
Episode Two will also bring us well out of the nightmare of 1945 and closer to the present day, with Matthew Rozell‘s first message from a survivor: Lexie Keston. Contact with her and others led to the first reunion of the liberated with a liberator — which in turn led to even greater and more joyous surprised that we’ll tell about in Episode Three…!