Following the first installation May 2007 in Boortmeerbeek (Belgium) of the 4 canvases with portraits of the attackers and the escapees of Transport XX (1), the installation was next shown in Cologne (Köln) January 26-27, 2008, at the Cologne Central Station (Köln Hauptbahnhof), in front of the Cologne Cathedral – image installation above.

The information – DE, German language, quoted below – on this ‘ Poster campaign “Resistance and Survival” ‘ was published in 2010 at the Open Memory site by the ‘Initiative “Bahn erinnern“ ‘ from Köln (2).

Here the English translation (by Michel van der Burg, with an update of the quoted numbers in Notes*)

Resistance and survival: The 20th deportation train in Belgium

Poster exhibition 26 – 27 January 2008, Cathedral square, Cologne Central Station

The outstanding action against deportation trains of the Deutschen Reichsbahn, transporting Jews to the extermination camps, took place in Boortmeerbeek (Belgium). On April 19, 1943, three men stopped the train on the way to Auschwitz, opened a wagon, and thus enabled 17 people to escape. A further 215 people were able to free themselves before the German border, 119 of them survived the Nazi terror thanks to the support of the people in Belgium. *

In cooperation with Boortmeerbeek and the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance (JMDR) in Mechelen, the “Bahn erinnern” Initiative displayed four large billboards on the Cathedral square of the Cologne Central Station, commemorating this resistance action.

In short contributions, guests from Belgium and members of the Initiative described the course of the action and focused in particular on the widespread resistance of the population against the persecution of Jews in Belgium. Their courageous advocacy for the persecuted saved more than half of the Jewish population from extermination by the Nazis.

DE

Notes

Image : Transport XX Köln 2008 | Collection Marc Michiels | Miracles•Media | 20240720 | TakeNode 4c18fc2a-e4bc-4485-8380-aa3a260b3a5d

*Update numbers : A total of 238 deportees managed to escape from the train, however 90 were soon recaptured and put on the next convoy, 26 were shot dead and 122 succeeded in their escape (3).

Installation : The four large canvases of three meters high and five meters wide are placed ‘wagon-like’ next to each other. It shows the portraits of 236 deported Jews who managed to escape from the XXth transport on Belgian territory. The first of the four large canvases also features the three young Brussels’ men who stopped the train, Youra (Georges) Livschitz, Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau. Portraits are mostly from the State Archives, Brussels, digitized by Kazerne Dossin / JMDR (Mechelen, Belgium) for the project ‘Give them a face’.

1. Canvases Transport XX – Boortmeerbeek | Collection Marc Michiels | Miracles•Media | 20240418

2. Initiative “Bahn erinnern”. Open Memory. URL http://open-memory.info/bahnerinnern . Retrieved Nov 27, 2013.

3. TRANSPORT XX installation Mechelen | Miracles•Media | 20240518

4. Marc Michiels – the Boortmeerbeek expert author on the history of Transport XX, and longtime coordinator of the annual Transport XX commemorations in Boortmeerbeek – wrote , that the “…four canvases ….were loaned to the German Democratic youth in 2008 for the exhibition ‘Deportationen mit einem Güterwaggon auf dem Bahnhofsvorplatz’ at the Cologne train station. Translation by Michel van der Burg, from Michiels’ dutch book :
Het XXste transport naar Auschwitz (2019). Marc Michiels, Mark Wijngaert (eds. Davidsfonds / Standaard Uitgeverij). ISBN 9789059089808

5. Installation Open Memory | Miracles•Media | 20240715

Citation info : Transport XX Köln 2008 | Collection Marc Michiels / Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media | 20240720