On this day eighty years ago, U.S. soldiers responded to reports of something unusual just north of Magdeburg: an abandoned train, fifty boxcars long.
They soon found that the train had been, for the previous six days, a rolling prison jammed full of people — approximately two thousand five hundred human beings, many sick with typhus and all on the brink of starvation.
What better way can there be to embody the significance of April 13th, 1945 than this drawing by one of the people who was there?
This is Ervin Abadi‘s second version of his recollection of the moment when liberator and liberated first set eyes upon each other.
In the words of train survivor Leslie Meisels: “A cry went up — ‘Oh God! We are free!‘”
And eighty years later, this anniversary falls during Passover. The people represented here celebrate their ancestors’ liberation from slavery — and their own liberation from imprisonment, starvation, disease, and the constant threat of death.
The world owes a debt of gratitude to Major Clarence Benjamin, commanding the 743rd, for many things. For taking the initiative to seek out the train, above all. And for making sure one of his tanks and its commander was left behind to guard the train until more help could arrive.
But we are also grateful that he had the presence of mind, when confronted with this extraordinary moment, to raise his camera and snap a photo.
We’ve all seen it. It’s now considered one of the most important and powerful photographs ever taken.
Today, marking 80 years since this photo was taken, it’s a good day to study this image again, to travel back all those decades and imagine you are one of the soldiers suddenly confronted with this scene.
Or perhaps to imagine yourself as one of these people who has expected nothing but death — and suddenly seen the promise of life and hope!
It is to preserve the memory of this historic date that we continue to work on this documentary series. We are inspired and determined to make a work of art that will do credit to all of the extraordinary people who connected on April 13, 1945.