Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,794
Three Silent Heroes!
Since May 1940 the Germans have occupied Belgium ...:
As part of the so-called "Final Solution of the Youth Question", the small country is to be made "Jew-free" from July 1942, as the murderers called it at the time.
To this end, around 25,000 Belgians of Jewish faith are initially penned up by the SS in the Dossin barracks in Mechelen ...
... and then deported directly to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp with 27 special trains ...:
Three young Belgian underground fighters, Youra Livchitz ...
... Robert Maistriau...
...and Jean Franklemon...
... at least don't want to let that happen without resistance!
You are planning a raid on one of these trains with the aim of freeing as many of the doomed as possible!
On April 19, 1943, they stop the 20th special train from Mechelen that is on its way to the Auschwitz extermination camp!
The three of them must have had a lot of courage, because apart from a red lantern (to stop the train) they are only armed with a small pistol!
Livchitz, Robert Maistriau and Franklemon had previously - far better armed! - Belgian partisan groups tried to get support, but were strictly rejected.
They had replied that the planned company was "far too dangerous".
On the clear night of the full moon on April 19, 1943, the three of them go through the action completely on their own!
The train consists of 40 cattle cars ...
... in each of which 50 deportees are locked up, in a 3rd class "Reichsbahn" passenger car attached to the rear, the 16-strong SS escort unit drives along.
In Bordtmeerbeek, the young Belgians put the hurricane lantern covered with red paper on the tracks - and the train actually stops!
Each of them has a small pair of pliers with them to break open as many hatches as possible on the wagons that are locked from the outside.
When Livchitz, Maistriau and Franklemon slide open the first hatches, some of the deportees immediately jump into the open, others are held back by fellow prisoners who shout that it is far too dangerous to flee.
By the time the SS guards of the escort unit come to and open fire, the three only manage to free 17 prisoners.
Maistriau leads the liberated one after the other in two groups away from the railroad track and gives each person a 50 franc note for their further escape.
Then the train starts again.
Since the SS guards have not swarmed out (they don't know how many resistance fighters are facing them!) They also don't notice the many hatches on the wagons that the young Belgians have opened!
By the time the train reaches the Belgian-German border, 215 more of the doomed manage to flee on their own.
The act of the three Belgians is the only documented and verifiable liberation action on one of the many "death trains" during the entire Holocaust!
Of the total of 232 train refugees freed in this way, 26 were either shot while trying to escape or died of injuries sustained when they jumped. 87 deportees were arrested again after escaping.
But 119 of them manage to escape and survive the war and the Holocaust!
Your three young liberators fare differently. You can escape at first, but the SS security service gets them all!
Youra Livchitz was arrested on May 11, 1943, but was able to strike down his guard and flee. After being arrested again, he was sent to the Breendonk police detention center ...
... admitted and shot there on June 26, 1943.
Robert Maistriau was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in May 1944 and was then sent to the Mittelbau-Dora satellite camp, where he had to work on the Nazis' V-2 rockets under inhumane conditions! He survived, moved to the Belgian Congo in 1949, where he lived as a development worker for 40 years, and died in 2008.
Jean Franklemon was also caught by the SD and survived imprisonment in Sachsenhausen concentration camp; he died in 1977.
At the exact spot where the three brave Belgians stopped the death train on the night of April 19, 1943, there is a memorial today ...:
Es gibt Dokumentarfilme Bücher über die Aktion...:
Honor her memory!
Since May 1940 the Germans have occupied Belgium ...:
As part of the so-called "Final Solution of the Youth Question", the small country is to be made "Jew-free" from July 1942, as the murderers called it at the time.
To this end, around 25,000 Belgians of Jewish faith are initially penned up by the SS in the Dossin barracks in Mechelen ...
... and then deported directly to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp with 27 special trains ...:
Three young Belgian underground fighters, Youra Livchitz ...
... Robert Maistriau...
...and Jean Franklemon...
... at least don't want to let that happen without resistance!
You are planning a raid on one of these trains with the aim of freeing as many of the doomed as possible!
On April 19, 1943, they stop the 20th special train from Mechelen that is on its way to the Auschwitz extermination camp!
The three of them must have had a lot of courage, because apart from a red lantern (to stop the train) they are only armed with a small pistol!
Livchitz, Robert Maistriau and Franklemon had previously - far better armed! - Belgian partisan groups tried to get support, but were strictly rejected.
They had replied that the planned company was "far too dangerous".
On the clear night of the full moon on April 19, 1943, the three of them go through the action completely on their own!
The train consists of 40 cattle cars ...
... in each of which 50 deportees are locked up, in a 3rd class "Reichsbahn" passenger car attached to the rear, the 16-strong SS escort unit drives along.
In Bordtmeerbeek, the young Belgians put the hurricane lantern covered with red paper on the tracks - and the train actually stops!
Each of them has a small pair of pliers with them to break open as many hatches as possible on the wagons that are locked from the outside.
When Livchitz, Maistriau and Franklemon slide open the first hatches, some of the deportees immediately jump into the open, others are held back by fellow prisoners who shout that it is far too dangerous to flee.
By the time the SS guards of the escort unit come to and open fire, the three only manage to free 17 prisoners.
Maistriau leads the liberated one after the other in two groups away from the railroad track and gives each person a 50 franc note for their further escape.
Then the train starts again.
Since the SS guards have not swarmed out (they don't know how many resistance fighters are facing them!) They also don't notice the many hatches on the wagons that the young Belgians have opened!
By the time the train reaches the Belgian-German border, 215 more of the doomed manage to flee on their own.
The act of the three Belgians is the only documented and verifiable liberation action on one of the many "death trains" during the entire Holocaust!
Of the total of 232 train refugees freed in this way, 26 were either shot while trying to escape or died of injuries sustained when they jumped. 87 deportees were arrested again after escaping.
But 119 of them manage to escape and survive the war and the Holocaust!
Your three young liberators fare differently. You can escape at first, but the SS security service gets them all!
Youra Livchitz was arrested on May 11, 1943, but was able to strike down his guard and flee. After being arrested again, he was sent to the Breendonk police detention center ...
... admitted and shot there on June 26, 1943.
Robert Maistriau was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in May 1944 and was then sent to the Mittelbau-Dora satellite camp, where he had to work on the Nazis' V-2 rockets under inhumane conditions! He survived, moved to the Belgian Congo in 1949, where he lived as a development worker for 40 years, and died in 2008.
Jean Franklemon was also caught by the SD and survived imprisonment in Sachsenhausen concentration camp; he died in 1977.
At the exact spot where the three brave Belgians stopped the death train on the night of April 19, 1943, there is a memorial today ...:
Es gibt Dokumentarfilme Bücher über die Aktion...:
Honor her memory!
