Expert author on the history of Transport XX and coordinator for many years of the annual commemorations in Boortmeerbeek, Belgium – here at the 7th commemoration in 1999.
Marc Michiels 1999 Transport XX | 20210503 | Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media
TAGS #MarcMichiels #TransportXX #commemoration #1Memo #MiraclesMedia #michelvanderburg #Belgium #Boortmeerbeek #holocaust #history #resistance #deportation #train #attack #escape #Livschitz #Maistriau #Franklemon #speech #Jew #war #RobertMaistriau #SimonGronowski #RegineKrochmal
On the night of April 19, 1943 the XXth Transport departs from the Dossinkazerne in Mechelen with 1631 Jewish men, women and children heading for Auschwitz. Armed with one revolver, and a storm lamp covered with red tissue paper, three young men manage to stop the train between Boortmeerbeek and Haacht and free seventeen prisoners.
This rescue operation by George Livschitz, Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon is unique in the history of the Holocaust. Even before the train reaches the Belgian border, more than two hundred prisoners can escape. Some of them are shot, others are arrested again by the Nazis, but most escape the fate that awaits them in Auschwitz.
The book describes the escapes from the XXth Transport, how the transport was put together and what would happen to the vast majority of deportees. The countless testimonies confront the reader with the racial destructiveness of the Nazis and tell how some people barely managed to escape.
Marc is dreaming now of an English and or French translation of his dutch book…
Music by the Crescendo Boortmeerbeek Choir.
① memo 20190506 ~ XXth Transport to Auschwitz ~ Marc Michiels & Mark Van den Wijngaert
