Breathtaking unseen footage of Holocaust ‘miracle’ unveiled for first time
Three-minute footage shows Holocaust survivors, who were heading by train to Theresienstadt on 13 April 1945, after they were rescued by American troops.
Never before seen footage of the “Miracle at Farsleben”, an iconic event during the Holocaust, has been revealed by the National Archives in the United States.
Three trains, each with 2,500 Holocaust survivors on board, departed from concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen to Theresienstadt on 7 April 1945.
Revealed: New and extraordinarily powerful footage of the aftermath of the rescue of 2,500 Jews being taken by the SS from Belsen to Theresienstadt by train in April 1945 has emerged after nearly 80 years.
Read my exclusive piece for the @Independent: https://t.co/TAhfnFJHt6 pic.twitter.com/dF7iNoSEtT— Guy Walters ???????? (@guywalters) August 1, 2023
The prisoners were cramped into the trains en route to Theresienstadt in an attempt by the Nazis to use them for prisoner exchange with the Allies.
After six days of travel, in horrifying conditions, the train shown in the footage stopped outside the village of Farsleben, 80 miles west of Berlin, after Americans and Nazi soldiers exchanged fired nearby.
The event described as the “Miracle at Farsleben” took place on 13 April 1945, when an American Jeep and tank from the 743rd Tank Battalion of the 30th Infantry Division of the Ninth Army came to rescue the prisoners.
The rare footage was unearthed by a researcher in Germany, an American author and an American filmmaker and appeared exclusively in the Independent.
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