A Train Near Magdeburg (The Young Adult Adaptation) [2020]
—ABRIDGED EDITION of the True Story of the Rescue of a Holocaust Death Train in World War II— SUITABLE FOR Grades 9-12 and Beyond
Jewish children on a death train. Nazi murderers. American soldiers. A teacher turned detective, solving a historical mystery, two generations later. It's not a novel. It's not 'based on a true story.' It really happened, and teenagers were there to tell about surviving the horrors of the Holocaust—and living to thank their liberators, just a few years older than themselves... in their own words.
421 PAGES.
Publisher's Summary
"It's not a novel. It's not based on a true story. It really happened, and I am a witness. You will be, too."
Told from the teenage/ young adult perspective of Holocaust in four European countries, all bound for a common destiny-Bergen Belsen and the final train transport intercepted by young American soldiers on April 13, 1945.
AS A YOUNG TEEN living a comfortable life with family, what do you do when the Germans march into your town to persecute you, and your neighbors and your friends turn their backs? As life turns upside-down and you are now a young prisoner—fighting for survival in a concentration camp and FORCED TO BOARD A DEATH TRAIN to nowhere—how do you go on as people are dying all around you?
*
AS A YOUNG AMERICAN SOLDIER in World War II, fighting brutal battles across Europe—having been shot at and shelled, having seen your friends killed, and no longer even able to remember what your own mother looks like—what is the plan when you STUMBLE ACROSS A HOLOCAUST TRAIN full of suffering families that shocks you to your core, even after you think you have seen it all?
*
And what happens when the SOLDIERS AND SURVIVORS again MEET FACE TO FACE, seven decades later?
“I survived because of many miracles. but for me to actually meet and cry together with my liberators—the ‘angels of life’ who literally gave me back my life—was just beyond imagination!” –Leslie Meisels, Holocaust survivor
— TABLE OF CONTENTS —
A NOTE FROM A TEACHER 9
INTRODUCTION 13
BOOK ONE 17
A PLACE CALLED BERGEN-BELSEN 19
THE LAST TRANSPORT 43
DARKNESS DESCENDS 51
LOST IN GERMANY 63
THE ASH YARDS OF POLAND 83
A CHILD IN HOLLAND 137
‘HUNGARY IS JUDENREIN’ 157
BOOK TWO 195
A DATE WITH THE COSMOS 197
A TIME TO DIE 207
THE BULGE AND BEYOND 231
BOOK THREE 245
WHAT THE SOLDIERS SAW 249
‘THE AMERICANS ARE HERE’ 265
‘I’LL NEVER FORGET TODAY.’ 295
BOOK FOUR 303
‘THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT’ 305
‘NOW I KNOW WHAT I FOUGHT FOR.’ 325
‘FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY’ 329
THE MEDICS 337
THE ORPHAN 355
DENIAL 359
THE MYSTERY 365
‘WHAT DO YOU WANT THE WORLD TO BE?’ 381
AFTERMATH 385
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 397
LIST OF REUNIONS 401
NOTES 403
