Unveiling of the mural created by HYER , depicting the story and credo of Simon Gronowski in the Garden of Remembrance of the S2J School Center (Centre Scolaire S2J) in Liège, Belgium, on Saturday, May 17, 2025.
Music video
Music video created with a tracking shot, and Simon Gronowski’s musical improvisation during the ceremony, by Michel van der Burg (Miracles•Media) in cooperation with Philippe Renette , co-producer , teacher at S2J School Center.
Credo
Moi, Je garde ma foi en l’avenir, car je crois moi profondement en la bonté humaine… Vive La Paix Et L’Amitié Entre Les Hommes !
I keep my faith in the future, because I deeply believe in human kindness… Long Live Peace And Friendship Among Men !
Simon’s Credo • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • @1MEMO 20250518 • TakeNode f8a73334-ee85-4f13-810a-381863407115
Notes
Citation info : Simon’s Credo | Miracles Moment #4 | Miracles•Media | 20250521 | ISAN 0000-0007-36B4-0004-6-0000-0000-J | TakeNode 2c2513ca-9580-4098-993a-78573db1d6be
Mural by HYER, Garden of Remembrance S2J, Liège, Belgium, May 17, 2025.
Unveiling of the street art mural created by HYER , depicting the story and credo of Simon Gronowski in the Garden of Remembrance of the S2J School Center (Centre Scolaire S2J) in Liège, Belgium, on Saturday, May 17, 2025.
In front of the mural Simon Gronowski, and S2J teacher Philippe Renette speeching.
Citation info : Garden of Remembrance S2J • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • 20250520 • TakeNode e6cddfca-5ad5-4c14-b975-725eeef2cddf
Kuttekoven (Borgloon), Belgium. Sunday, January 26th, 2014. At nightfall, Simon Gronowski recounts to people of Kuttekoven, his daring escape – helped by his mother Chana Kaplan that rainy night of April 19, 1943 – from the 20th deportation train to Auschwitz, at this very spot on the railway track bed (of the so-called ‘Fruitspoor’) where it enters the village of Kuttekoven.
Faces of the attackers and escapees of Transport XX reflecting in the windows of this train leaving Boortmeerbeek station direction Mechelen, during the commemoration May 15, 2011 of Transport XX to Auschwitz.
The night of April 19, 1943, the 20th convoy left the transit camp Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen, with 1631 jewish deportees in circa 33 cattle cars heading for Auschwitz.
After passing the Boortmeerbeek train station, the three young Brussels’ heroes Youra Livschitz, Robert Maistriau, and Jean Franklemon, attacked this 20th convoy, opening one of the cars, and liberating 17 people.
A total of 238 deportees managed to escape from this death train before the Belgian border, by opening the cattle cars from the inside, with the help of some 20 jewish resistance fighters among the deportees, and also a second hold-up shortly after midnight at Korbeek-Lo.
The total number of 238 escapees (data update April 2024) , includes (i) the 17 people liberated during the attack in Boortmeerbeek, (ii) the escape of the 6-year-old boy Aron Luksenberg (a recent finding by Jo Peeters) , and (iii) the escape of Viviane , who escaped in the womb of her three-months pregnant mother Isabella Weinreb-Castegnier, and was born 6 months later in Brussels (Miracles.Media).
Just over half of the number of escapees – a total of 122 – managed to escape permanently — 26 escapees were shot dead when they jumped, and 90 escapees were recaptured and redeported…
Notes
Reflection shows the Transport XX – installation Boortmeerbeek, of four large canvases of three meters high and five meters wide placed ‘wagon-like’ next to each other, parallel to the Mechelen-Leuven railway line, with portraits of 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 men who stopped the train, Youra (Georges) Livschitz, Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau.
The Transport XX – installation Boortmeerbeek was created for the 2007 Boortmeerbeek commemoration of Transport XX, with the theme: ‘Give Them a face’, and later commemoration events, thanks to Marc Michiels (commemoration coordinator) in collaboration with Marjan Verplancke and co-workers of the project “Give Them a Face” of Kazerne Dossin / Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance in Mechelen (Belgium) . Portraits of escapees are mostly from the State Archives, Brussels, digitized by Kazerne Dossin. Boortmeerbeek.
Citation info : Resistance | Miracles Moment #2 | Miracles•Media | 20240515 | ISAN 0000-0007-36B4-0002-A-0000-0000-7 | TakeNode bc70ea7c-278e-4f84-982c-4e926030c405
Marc Michiels – expert author on the history of Transport XX and coordinator for many years of the annual Transport XX commemorations in Boortmeerbeek, Belgium – unfortunately passed away April 2021 . Some months later his web site ‘holocaust’ (at telenet.be) dedicated to Transport XX was taken offline. Now — when searching for info on Robert Korten – Marc’s predecessor as the first coordinator and founder of the XXth convoy-commemorations – I was happy to to find Marc’s website is back online, now at the appropriate new domain : transportxxboortmeerbeek.be
Citation info : Transport XX Boortmeerbeek – Marc Michiels | 20240309 | Miracles•Media | TakeNode fd808fa3-09f2-4c0d-b9c8-f711a47b05ba | URL 1-memo.com/2024/03/09
