HUDSON FALLS, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- The lessons from a retired history teacher from a small-town high school is getting international attention. What started as an oral history project to uncover lost history is now on track to be seen by a wider audience.
Every classroom can be filled with untold history, which can fade with time. That was certainly the case in Matthew Rozell's history class at Hudson Falls High School. "One of my big questions was, this is back in the early 90s, how many of you kids have grandparents or even parents who were somehow involved in World War II?" Rozell said.
That question sparked a class project that led Rozell to the late Carrol Walsh in 2001. Walsh was the grandfather of one of Rozell's students. "He told me two hours of combat veteran stories, some funny, some terrifying," Rozell recalled.
But Walsh had left out a major event, and just as Rozell was wrapping up his interview, Walsh's daughter Elizabeth chimed in and asked if her father had told Rozell about the train. Walsh replied in the video from 2001 that he had not mentioned the train.
"He started to tell me the story of how his tank came across a train stranded by the railroad track," Rozell shared.
The train was near Magdeburg, Germany, with 2,500 Jewish prisoners onboard. Men, women and children were inside, on their way from Belson-Bergen to another concentration camp to get away from the advancing Allies in April of 1945. The moment of liberation was snapped in a single black and white photograph.
"They came upon a train right in the nick of time. And they saved these peoples' lives," Rozell explained.
The hours that followed were recorded by the U.S. Signal Army Corps, silent footage that was recently discovered and shared by the National Archives. After the original interview was posted with Walsh in 2001, Rozell started hearing from people around the world who remember being on the train. Rozell helped set in motion several reunions, generations in the making. Before his death in 2012, Carrol Walsh was able to meet with the many survivors he helped save.
"It all happened in this small town of Hudson Falls," Rozell said.
It's also all detailed in Rozell's best-selling book "A Train Near Magdeburg." The story got the attention of award-winning documentary film maker Mike Edwards. "That's how we learn from the past, which can inform how we behave in the future," Edwards said. "We have to listen to people who were there. Listen to their stories."
What started as a high school history project is in production to become a four-part mini-series bringing to screen how one act of bravery changed thousands of lives.
"And if it hadn't been for that moment, we would not have all these wonderful people in the world," Elizabeth said. "It brings the power of being a good person to light and to do the right thing."
While hope is not a word often associated with the Holocaust, Elizabeth's dad was a part of providing just that when it was needed the most.
"Even though that's something that happened years ago, it should be teaching us, how many years -- almost 80 years later -- the importance of acceptance, of tolerance, of looking at people as people," Elizabeth added.
An important lesson on why teaching history matters beyond the halls of a high school.
The documentary production team hopes to distribute their docuseries through ITV some time next May. You can find more information on the production process and ways to support the project online.
