80: 20th Convoy

80 years ago yesterday (April 19. 1943) the Belgian Resistance stopped the 20^th Convoy (a German Holocaust Cattle Train) going from the Mechelen Transit Camp in German-Occupied Belgium to the Auschwitz Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland.

The train was carrying 1,632 Jewish Men, Women and Children.

Three Young Students and Members of the Belgian Resistance including a Jewish Doctor, Youra Livchitz and his two non-Jewish Friends Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon armed with one pistol, a lantern, and red paper to create a makeshift red lantern (to use as a danger signal), were able to stop the train on the track.

They opened 1 Train Wagon and freed 17 People.

Not connected with the attack, the Train Driver, Albert Dumon, did all he could to keep the slowest pace possible between Tienen and Tongeren, stopping whenever it was possible and justifiable, to allow more people could jump without killing themselves.

In all, 233 people managed to escape, of whom 118 ultimately survived. The remainder were either killed during the escape or were recaptured soon afterwards.

The Attack was unusual as an attempt by the Resistance to free Jewish Deportees and marks the only mass breakout by deportees on a Holocaust Train.

Aftermath: The Germans re-took the Holocaust Train and proceeded to Auschwitz where it arrived on April 22, 1943.

During the Selection only 521 People (276 Men and 245 Women) from the 20^th Convoy were selected for Forced Labor and only 150 of those survived the Holocaust.

The remaining 874 Non-Selected Men, Women and Children were immediately murdered in the Gas Chambers.

Youra Livchitz (1917-1944): was arrested by the Gestapo a month after the attack. He escaped, but was re-arrested on June 26, 1943. He was executed by the Germans on February 17, 1944.

Jean Franklemon (1917-1977): was arrested on August 4, 1943 and sent to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany until he was freed by the Allies.

Robert Maistriau (1921-2008): was arrested on March 20, 1944 and sent to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp and then Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp – both in Germany – until he was freed by the British on April 15, 1945.

In Remembrance of the action of the Resistance, a statue was inaugurated in 1993 near the train station of Boortmeerbeek. It remembers the Holocaust and the transport of 25,483 Jews and 351 Gypsies (Roma and Sinti) over the railway track Mechelen-Leuven to the Concentration Camps (pictured.)