A Train Near Magdeburg
This September 12, we are partnering with the Augusta Chiwy Foundation, which is producing a miniseries about the WWII story.
Please Note: Space is limited and registration is required to attend.
“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.”
“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.”
Photograph by Major Clarence Benjamin
“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.”
Read more about the story of the train’s discovery here: https://magdeburgtrain.com/eighty-years/.
