The falklands. These images shot in secret tell of an unusual story of courage. Taken near the end of the Second World War they show czech citizens trying to free people from the train prisoners from a nazi concentration camp. One of the survivors don its a big r. H. Would later recall conditions in the railway cars. There were so many of us that we had to stand packed together all night. Planes were flying over us dropping bombs. We had no idea what was going to happen to us. Some said we were going to be used as human shields in the fight against the liberators. We hardly cared anymore and began to envy those whod been shot because theyd finally found peace. With the allies approaching the nazis had begun liquidating concentration camps many prisoners were sent on death marches all transported by rail train nine four eight zero three was a man of many such transports but when it reached czech soil things took a very different turn and since. Some years ago during our research we discovered photographs of a train but we didnt know the story behind it the reason of this is that its the snapshots showed a train a Rail Transport carrying what were clearly prisoners from a concentration camp at this thing. In the czech locals monitored the train and photographed it along its entire route passing on the message from one rail station to the next a huge. Once fought from the fossil books satellite camp in little makeshifts up was heading south. Needed it. To our little steve knight never seen anything like it. I felt these people had to be helped i meet them at their. Best bought the. C. E. O. On may second a military truck pulled up with about twenty s. S. Men on it not really announced that if anyone had prisoners in their entire family would be punished the third through. To so we were just boys back then its so we didnt really understand what was happening. I only really understood it fifteen years after the war when i retrieve the rest of the film that we shot back then at the us only then did i really understand what i had witnessed what sort of us knew some. Odd little midgets alerting some four thousand people on to the freight cars had taken days they even before arriving on czech soil done it some bug out h. And her fellow prisoners had witnessed unspeakable horrors. One evening the s. S. Men came and announced that some empty wagons were being added to the end of the train. They said that anyone who was too cramped could change to a different wagon. The prisoners near the doors decided to move but after they got out we heard machine gun fire they were all lined up and shot. Time and again the guards remove people from the trains and shot them dead bodies were disposed off in heist. This photograph taken off to the wall shows the exhumation near the little mechitza camp with the train had stood for several days. The train was guarded by young s. S. Men from the s. S. Officers school in little minutes and they were quite fanatical. Every time anyone tried to escape they started shooting that many prisoners were killed and those who were recaptured were executed. When the floss and brick concentration camp was liberated on april twenty third one thousand nine hundred five that did not mean the end of the prisoners suffering floss and bread was the main character the head of the hydra may have been lost doff but the network of satellite camps continue to operate the little mare cheats a satellite camp took over the role of the floss in her cap and little mechitza the murders continue that forced labor continued trains with prisoners continue to arrive at the train that left little mechitza with seventy seven open coal wagons of eventually arrived at the station here at ross talking for all stalky advised. From ross talky just north of prague the train continued on its journey its destination was presumably the mount house and concentration camp near the austrian city of lintz. Good problem. I was completely exhausted we were all half did the stations didnt interest us we were lying in the corner of the car clinging to each other. Yet catarina was just nineteen at the time she had been arrested as a partisan and sent to the auschwitz extermination camp eventually she was sent on a forced march to the east ending up on this transport. Maria for me and i was also sent to auschwitz as a young girl and worked as a forced labor she too eventually ended up on trained nine for three. I hear or should i try to save my strength to survive i wanted to live i was so hungry i was so weak that i thought now im going to die then our train started off again it rocked me to sleet yoshua. The route taken by the train followed along the last open corrigible between the approaching. This years liverpool the allied armies were moving in from the east and west but they were still some distance away the very marked leadership the top army brass and the s. S. Soon realized that the red army was not aiming for prague but for berlin. The americans advancing from the west had stopped in pilsen. So this corridor was one of the final centers of power and also a military center of the National Socialist german of. Knots and also. When the transport crossed the border into the occupied protectorate something unexpected happened. To them we woke up the next morning and suddenly there was bread biscuits something to eat in the wagon we asked ourselves whats going on funny how we cashed. On april twenty ninth one thousand nine hundred forty five the train reached the station where it halted for about five hours the check civilians at the station asked the guards to open the wagons it was a tense situation. You know what. The guards allowed us to fetch water we were all screaming water water were you know i was afraid to get out and thought theyd shoot me. But then i jumped off the wagon with my bowl and drank greedily. The water was running down my front i tried to bring the bowl full of water back to the wagon the guards were standing behind me and i thought theyre going to shoot me so i waited for a bullet in my back. The s. S. Guards had been caught by surprise they allowed some of the prisoners out of the wagons where they were given food by the czechs on the platform. But then the guards started shooting. A member of the French Resistance was one of those killed in. He was an artisan and father of two sons when he was picked up in brittany one was four and the other two years old. His arrest he had been sent from one concentration camp to the next. Check woman approached the wagon p. L. A flock was in when she tried to give him a piece of bread an s. S. Man shot him in the head at close range. In meal vassal was in the same way again decades later after the war he finally found p. L. O. Flocks family and was able to tell them how he died. A total of thirteen prisoners was shot dead in crowd of people. Later that day the train reached the town of rostock e five kilometers outside of prague the Railway Personnel had already been told to expect a large prison to transport a crowd was already waiting for the train calling on the s. S. To allow them to help the prison as. The young photographer vladimir film and wanted to document the events he didnt know how the s. S. Would react when they saw his camera. I the train stayed overnight in rostock station master a young nigeria had blocked its onward journey. After the war in one thousand nine hundred forty six he described the events of that evening. It was an avalanche of events. The train arrived at eight thirty pm it had seventy seven open wagons from which thousands of emaciated hands were stretching out for the food we were offering before the train arrived we had told the local people to prepare food for the prisoners. Miroslav was just thirteen years old i. Mean this miracle. Set on this little wall and waited. Where the train came from over there. It was long and took up the entire station. At the end of the train was a wagon for the guards you know so when you were going that there in then we heard a shot than this probably a warning shot because we couldnt hear any screams from anyone who had been hit the immigrants just always or newsroom thought we ran away fast. The situation seemed quite dangerous. As at other stations along the route the people of rostock he took pictures but a local shop owner not also had a video camera and filmed in secret. Much of the footage appears to have been made hastily. By the allies filmed in the concentration camps after liberation but these photographs and footage shot in the presence of the s. S. Are unique. The prisoners were very weak and in my seat it out of sight of the guards at the end of the train miroslav course child tried to distribute boiled potatoes. Already which the video when the women on the train saw the food they jumped off the wagons and threw themselves at it like wild animals. Little trips it was a big shock for me this and you cant forget Something Like that whenever we talk about it i can still remember it as though it were yesterday that it would all stop. Leopold hale also heard about the train full of people who were on the brink of starvation and brought food to the railway embankment. When he arrived with piles of soup made by his mother the situation was nowhere near as calm as it appears on this clan to stand photo. At that he said stop the b. S. Here although as i stood there the prisoners who had gotten out of the wagons lay down on the ground. They lowered their bowls on strings from above to get Something Sweet from us down below. They given the heads were right there. For a german was running back and forth beating them in the head but the bottom his rifle. Sometimes there was a crack when someones rip was broken. The report. Thats left us stock of all was fifteen at the time she and a friend came to the railway station. Our show. Is where people were standing and giving them bread. A man tried to give a loaf of bread to a prisoner the prisoner already had the loaf in his hands. While cleaning he was bending down to take it. Just like this he said. And then a soldier shot him. Sure it was terrible. Savage top of the prisoner fell to the ground here and risen spagnolo was. Then a voice soldier and his rifle at us the entire time thats why we stopped and stood there as we couldnt even go to the man and help him in some way. Out not. To see if we were completely frozen with fear with the fear that he would shoot us too much any certainly stash and not would not allow such that the focus here at. Least. The residents of ross talkie were not deterred by the brutality of the s. S. They brought bread in by the truckload and even made soup in the station building. It was talky as at other stations along the route a small memorial recalls the transport smutty the transport of death as the czechs call it. The guards finally let many of the prisoners out of the train for a while the guards included both s. S. Officers and their mock soldiers. And so good to see today here on the platform behind me there were actually negotiations between the s. S. Guards who realize they didnt have control over the situation and the check locals who wanted to help the prisoners if the thats what makes this relief operation so unique so simple. But the czechs did move in just bring food to the president s. Education study at the there were a lot of people here it was chaos some prisoners were smuggled out into the waiting room by passers by as if youre not in love you know the video the thing to get out of my father was a gendarme a Police Constable from the village. He stood at the outer door so that the guards couldnt get in. Because the waiting room the prisoners were given regular clothing to change and to work. Themselves. The. Then they walked through the other door here and away into the crowd at their gives. People deliberately provoke confusion so that they wouldnt attract attention. You know. I know some people took them home from here no one of. About three hundred people were hidden in cross stalky capriati large his father was one of those the czechs helped to escape. The journalist dennis hungary and you had also been placed on trying number nine for three as it departed the little concentration camp. In a suburb of prague which i later heard had to be restocking my father managed to join a larger group and when the local resident stopped the train. Told me that the guards were still shooting them in a random way. He managed to hide in a hospital until the end of the war priests in the typhoid ward sister for. Two full stop. The doctors assured him that the germans wouldnt searchin that marshawn english to. The czechs knew that the germans had orders to avoid the risk of infection. They climbed into the railway cars to look for sick prison as. Was done in the wagon it looked as if they were all dead diagnosed every day and suddenly we would see a hand or a leg sticking out that would actually move. When we managed to get someone out we needed someone else to help to bring that person away. Dont you get us here. You know we wanted to make sure that theyd survive. And they slowly says the response of your surgeon. And emergency clinic was set up in the form of poor house to care for the seriously ill prisoners around eighty people were rescued from the train and cared for here. The girl put on bringing those people want used to suddenly being given something clean to wear she will visit the also been your chief studio all. I know what i know. What did you say i know what i know. Yes. Yet you know them over that most of them didnt speak czech of course so they couldnt tell us what was hurting them. We had nothing to treat them with at the beginning nothing but boiled water. That we washed out their wounds and try to tear the sheets into strips. Those were our bandages. Their. Doctors and volunteers from rostock he tended to the rescued prisoners as best they could even though the area was still under German Military occupation. The german guards began to get restless. The train set off once again. The prisoners waved to the local people as they headed off in the direction of the mount house and concentration camp but the station master had already informed the next station in prague on may fourth the people of rostock he held a funeral for the nameless dead from the train by then the gestapo had also arrived in town and the situation was tense. The son of the murdered resistance fighter and his wife have come from brittany to this cemetery in rostock to pay their last respects he still remembers how as a four year old he his mother and his brother cried at night as they waited in vain for his fathers return. So far. When i was little and we learned my father had been killed we still hoped against hope that he would return even though we knew something must have happened to him but there was no body so we couldnt really grieve it was very hard. Eh eh eh what im very grateful to the czechs. Say that this was still czechoslovakia when they were given this dignified burial. In other places concentration camp prisoners who died before the end of the war were cremated or buried in mass graves on may the fifth a eulogy was held in rostock and to honor the dead. For all those who have helped and continue to help alleviate the need and suffering of these unknown people for all of you who have come here i bid farewell to these nameless ill fated martyrs we do not know in which language they embrace their parents brothers sisters or children we dont even know which god they pray to and they are meant suffering we believe that these difficult times are coming to an end and that beauty will be restored to us then we will make sure that this is a proper grave. On the train the remaining prisoners were afraid of what might a white them. To hear words i had a dream last night it was as if i was in a church i was standing near a little. My window was high up on the sun was shining through it over there poor poor. Poor but the flu was very dusty. Or were injuries where not and i thought to myself. If the war were over i would wipe this floor. There were three steps rising to the exit the door was open. And on that day i was freed. Another full read believe. The train arrived at the boonies station in prague where a large crowd had already gathered some czech doctors and some nurses from the characters Catholic Relief Organization were also waiting. The German Occupation had been alerted about the aid that had been given to the prisoners on route. Teshima check a local Police Officer later recalled how the germans attempted to intervene. To stop all called us to see if we knew that local people were gathering at the railway station. When i replied that i knew about it i was ordered to ensure that no one entered the station. But the crowd entered the station and no one stopped them. And once again a station master intervened. Dont divulge sabotaged the locomotive. The Central Railway administration and the gestapo had ordered us to ensure the train passed through the station. But i claim that the engine had malfunctioned and would need to be replaced. Then during the final check i damaged the brakes to make sure the train couldnt leave the station i and the station master had time. Many locals took advantage of this to help the prisoners on the train at great personal risk. They came to our way again and asked in russian are you alive are you russian i said yes. Put us on stretchers covered us up and took us to the road. They put us down next to the station the boob nice station. There were four of us girls they covered us with a sheet. And. Then maria could remove our came to us and said. Be quiet were going to free you. The worst question of hidden under funeral shrouds the four girls was smuggled out of the station yard by a check woman. Was really the wrong why they took us to the tram. As we sat in the tram the czechs gave us bread and lumps of sugar. And. Some gave us their scarves oh never forget that. Then they sat us on the floor so that arshavin heads couldnt be seen through the window. As happened with many survivors and their rescue was Catarina Devon and maria could run over became lifelong friends. Even though the german still occupied prague many of the prisoners were hidden in peoples homes hundreds were hidden in city hospitals. The fact that the end of the war was approaching also played a role for people were already preparing for a change maybe they were becoming a bit more courageous and the guards were no longer as confident that since her. Around a thousand prisoners were liberated in prague the guards on the train barely bothered to intervene when the german commanders in prague learned of the mass escape they ordered the train to move on. Nothing we understood someone was trying to help us we wanted to live and we finally had hope that we might survive after all people were already saying that the red army had taken berlin. When the train reached all bram of itsa a village on the end of one of the largest s. S. Training areas it was shunted into a siding. S. S. Hopes to infere a free trick crown was the commander of a neighboring village he had previously served with an s. S. Division on the Eastern Front where he had gained ample experience in mass murder it lost a leg in battle which made him easy to identify. The trained student this siding for six days some of the guards who were hungry themselves took fifty of the prisoners to the next village to search for food they even allowed some of the prisoners to wash themselves in the village pond. This situation seemed quite relaxed until friedrich ground unexpectedly drove through the village. Was talking to one of the prisoners when the s. S. Officer turned up. Car pulled up and an officer got out. Three he only had one leg and the other was a prosthesis. And. He said nothing and just looked at the man wearing the prisoners uniform. Then he reached into the car and pulled out a pistol. Him move it but the magazine fell out onto the street and all the bullets got onto the road. I immediately understood what he was planning and told the prisoner same run. Run. As a cousin were dead sure it checked with h. Ground collected his ammunition and drove off half an hour later witnesses said he was back with twenty and s. S. Officers they started to sweep through the village information. The s. S. Many needed they jumped off the truck and started shooting at the prisoners. I saw two prisoners for. Meanwhile one of the wounded men had started to pull himself up at the cross in the village where. He was screaming for help. And the s. S. Man ran over to him and shot him twice in the head. The s. S. Fired at anything that moved a villager was also shot the prisoners tried to find shelter in the end twenty seven people were killed in all brown of itsa ladislav songs mother treated a wounded man and helped him hide. No thirty three then the million good i dont know who reported it but the next day an s. S. Officer came and asked me where is the wounded man. Showed up there then he went to get him from the stable to take him to the train in a museum there was no shot the prisoner through our garden means and there he shot him. Probably in the head of the third as a needle of a. Carol sereni was among those shot in the village a local woman found a lock of hair belonging to a child hidden in his clothing. At home in slovenia sereny had taken the lock of hair from his young daughter when he learned that he was to be arrested. In the czech woman was so shocked at his fate that after the war she went to slovenia to look for his family she found his widow and gave her a lock of hair. The prisoners were in a desperate condition the villagers were appalled by what they saw and despite the presence of the s. S. They brought food to the train by the truckload stationmaster antonin soma would like to describe what he witnessed. The train smelt so terrible that the railway men had to vomit the local people brought food to the train they did that for three days until crowned bandit again. During the six days the train was stopped at all prime of its a some prisoners were allowed to disembark and white nearby soon though the guards again began shooting prisoners at random by then the german command had begun to disintegrate. On may sixth another s. S. Officer ordered the train back onto the main track at all brown of its a station. He planned to send it to cesc a buddy of its a with the us army was expected to arrive soon. Says commander frederick ground again blocked its departure. Stationmaster antonin cern would like to describe the events. Between ten and eleven pm s. S. Commander clown arrived with his wife and several officers they immediately set up machine guns on the platform. Without warning they began shooting at the training. Ground and his wife and the other officers all took part in the shooting it lasted about twenty minutes when it was done around his wife and the other officers went to the station Managers Office the officers congratulated kyle and wife for gunning down four prisoners. The entire group took sadistic pleasure in the gunfire. In the one nine hundred seventy s. Czech authorities launched an investigation into friedrich grounds role in the massacre around abramovitz he denied being at the scene of the crime and got half. Hidden scope salute as the thread even today seventy three years later i still see the images in my dreams. I see them as though it was today or yesterday. And it has i still dont understand how such a thing could have happened at a point when the war was almost over with consumed thats the first thing it was a residue but also how could a human being do such a thing to another person from a vehicle residual. On may seventh the train left old ram of its its original destination the mauthausen concentration camp had meanwhile being liberated rumors began to spread among the prisoners that the germans planned to kill them before they fell into the hands of the allies. For the prisoners every hour that passed only increased their danger knowing how many prisoners had been shot along side the tracks during the journey the checks were determined to liberate the train before it could cross the border. Check resistance groups who were assembled at the station in Chess Computers of its gave the order to hold the train at validation on may eighth. Here near the border there was a hill that the train of this length could only muster with the second locomotive. The Czech Railway workers pulled off a major coup with Perfect Timing they stopped the push locomotive at a junction and set the signal on the open track to read resistance fighters and a Renegade Group of russian soldiers waiting for the train. So this was a corridor which no foreign armies had entered yet. Only the socalled glass off army was there which was named after the russian general under ive lost off. He was an opponent of stalin who initially fought with the germans he switched sides during the last weeks of the war he liberated the train presumably also for his own tactical reasons. Besides. The guards on the train would take him by surprise and force to disarm the allies survived on may ninth and tenth. To ruin some of. The prisoners were in some kind of trance. It was strange for them of course. All this time theyve been living in concentration camps and then on the train a. New a new solution and suddenly they were among the people. Who were still noble six of us it was tragic most of the time they just hung their heads. Very near where they sat by the drainage canal and searched for lights in their hair and so forth i knew when he said they were in shock. You know everything was so completely strange for them. Birth of coronets was washed. Three thousand survivors disembarked from the train the czechs brought in trucks to help the prisoners who were able to walk to meet by vanishing. First most of the survivors gathered on the village football pitch there was no building in the village that was large enough to accommodate so many people many of the prisoners was sick with typhus they even though they were clearly contagious the local people stepped in to care for them. One of them whose rizana was. A statement by an eyewitness recorded in one thousand nine hundred forty five described what followed. Was and not lose its kovach who treated the most severe cases of epidemic typhus paid for her devotion to the prisoners with her life. For significance to come because one thing i cant forget. I saw a man lying on the ground itself so he was so weak he could hardly talk but he told me that a guard had kicked him that very morning. And its so hard that his ribs had been broken broken well im not sure but i heard later that the man died that very same day no such but the intent doc. Thousands of meals were cooked for the survivors in the canteen of a local factory. Invalidation the survivors could finally sit in the sun again. Is it to like all of what made this train so special is that it shows there was room to take action to provide aid and assistance compare that to the death marches in german if i had territory. We know of people who gave prisoners potatoes who kept quiet about people hiding in their barn but this was different not just potatoes though that would have also been a humanitarian act the train was stopped ten kilometers down the line the next station was informed of its arrival they collected bread set up emergency clinics. You cant just explain that by saying well they were czechs and they hated the germans but this was not an action directed against the german occupiers this was an act of humanity of pure humanity. In the german high theres no evidence of anything like this nothing like this. Even in the closing days of the war. Its one of the most hotly debated buildings in Germany First there was the city palace and then the east german palace of the republic. After german reunification a decision was made rebuild berlin city palace to house a standout project the mold for. Thirty minutes on d w. Once upon a time there was a young girl. With a burning ambition. To become a conductor. I was a very curious child and very excited and in love with music and i would go to concerts with my parents and i always. Mirren for being on stage with the musicians and being part of that magic it wasnt difficult for the first one she really did come world famous conductor thanks to the not thanks a lot minus the. Start the during the t o t w. O t. This is d w news live from berlin signs of headway in talks to end the war in afghanistan seventeen years of fighting makes the conflict americas longest war now taliban and new u. S. Negotiators say that seen for aggressed up to peace talks in qatar but some sticking points remain. Also coming up venezuelas top military and boy to the u. S. Defectors from the government of president Nicolas Maduro the pressure is mounting on their eye off to his right