Robert’s shirt with sewn up bullet holes | 20230409 | Miracles•Media | Shirt the 14 year old Robert was wearing when shot in his chest as he jumped April 19, 1943 from the 20th convoy – together with his parents Bertha and Eddy Rottenberg. Detail of the neatly sewn up bullet holes is shown in the bottom-right image. Photo’s taken Nov. 19, 2012 by Audrey Rogers Furfaro and edited by Michel van der Burg (michelvanderburg.com).
Update — A Story of Transport XX – April 19, 1943 – by Audrey Rogers Furfaro | 20230409 | Miracles•Media | Story originally told April 2008 by Audrey Rogers Furfaro, and next posted Nov 2012 at michelvanderburg•com illustrated with the shirt the 14 year old Robert was wearing when shot in his chest as he jumped April 19, 1943 from the 20th convoy – together with his parents Bertha and Eddy Rottenberg.
A new finding – published at the current 236 exhibition in Brussels – is the location were the family escaped – they were numbers 722, 723, and 724. The Rottenberg family jumped close to Houppertingen, just before the site Simon Gronowski jumped, before Borgloon. That map is showing in a recent video of the vernisage of the ‘236’ project:
On the night of April 19 to 20 around 1 a.m., the Belgian partisans Romain Baplu, Gustav (Albert) Poncelet, Pieter Scheepers and Maurice Swinnen – active in the Leuven Partisans group – sabotaged the 20th convoy (Transport XX) just outside Leuven by placing a barricade on the railway track at Korbeek-Lo.
This delayed the 20th convoy of 1,631 Jews in cattle wagons, who were being deported from the Dossin transit camp in Mechelen to Auschwitz. Many deportees jumped from this death train further along between Korbeek-Lo and Tienen. This was the second time that night that the transport had been sabotaged from the outside.
Earlier that night, before Leuven, at Haacht (close to Boortmeerbeek), the three young Brussels heroes Youra Livchitz (Dr. Georges Livchitz), Robert Maistriau, and Jean Franklemon had carried out an attack on Transport XX. They freed 17 people by opening one of the cattle wagons.
Romain Baplu from Louvain (Leuven, Belgium) and Youra Livschitz (Dr. Georges Livchitz ) from Brussels were both reported on a list of hostages shot , published in the April 15, 1944 bulletin of News From Belgium : … “A List of Hostages Shot — The names of 15 hostages executed in Brussels after the murder of a German soldier have been published: Victor Jacobs, of Louvain; Michel Stockmans, of Hougaerde; Edmond Vertongen, of Linden; Désiré Regent, of Kessel-Loo; Julien Ameye, of Lans (France); Henri Michaux , of Herseaux; Maurice Knarren, of Brussels; Romain Baplu, of Louvain; Louis Dewolf, of Louvain; Désiré Lasterman, of Wesmael; Pierre Renis and Jean Simon, of Louvain; Léon Magne, of Nivelles; Joseph Nejszaten, of Sciepe; Albert Meurice, of St-Gilles, Brussels… … Eight patriots whose names follow were recently shot down by the Germans in occupied Belgium: Albert Romain, of Bièvres; Henry Albert, of Haut-Fays; and Dr. Georges Livchitz, René Lachaud, René Brams, Richard Lipper, Jean-Auguste Leyniers, and René Joseph Emile Denauw, all of Brussels.” News From Belgium Vol. IV, No. 15, April 15, 1944 | Belgian Information Center, New York (USA) | Harvard Law School Library | Digitized by Google.
Film License info : Romain Baplu & Youra Livchitz • News From Belgium | 20230407 | Miracles•Media | TakeNode bb8fc1fd-444f-4bba-aecb-1d439b5bdb3e
20240420 : changed Nicolas Poncelet to Albert Poncelet (based on several sources )
*20240420 : changed Marcel Swinnen to M. Swinnen (both Marcel or Maurice Swinnen … retrieved from Huis van het Belgisch Franse Verzet (Facebook, various dates).
*20240420 : Marcel Hollanders also mentioned at site Huis van het Belgisch Franse Verzet (20240419)
20260505 Last update text
20260509 text update , changed spelling of names , including Livschitz to Livchitz
Flea market at the Old Market square in the Marolles quarter of Brussels, March 2019
License info : Marolles Found Family Photo | 20230313 | Michel van der Burg | 1-memo•com | TakeNode 7e5069bc-ab18-4bae-a03a-ec94b4b99e7f
Flea market at the Old Market square in the Marolles quarter of Brussels, March 2019
License info : Marolles Slides | 20230312 | Michel van der Burg | 1-memo•com | TakeNode 1b166c0a-86d9-4c9e-9f23-ca4f020cbc07
Flea market at the Old Market square in the Marolles quarter of Brussels, March 2019
License info : Marolles Baby Doll | 20230311 | Michel van der Burg | 1-memo•com | TakeNode c566742e-25a9-4e09-b0f3-f43052029def
Flea market at the Old Market square in the Marolles quarter of Brussels, March 10, 2019
License info : Marolles Bells | 20230310 | Michel van der Burg | 1-memo•com | TakeNode 6469b929-9afa-4af6-8990-8a53136a68a5
Milkmaid outside Saint Nicolas Church, Brussels Belgium, March 8, 2019, celebrating International Women’s Day.
License info : Milkmaid Women’s Day | 20230309 | Michel van der Burg | 1-memo•com | TakeNode 2dabdc69-5d51-4f2f-bf52-e8cd29b2bb7a
