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
Focus on 1942-1943 deportation reports, browsing the 1943 bulletins of News From Belgium published by the Belgian Information Center, New York (USA) | The University of California Library | Digitized by Google. Film License info : Deportation • News From Belgium | 20230306 | Miracles•Media | TakeNode 35c33c0c-f00f-48b8-929a-8498e5e4d50f
“Belgian Partisans Release Jewish Deportees — Belgian partisans are reported by the Overseas News Agency , August 20, to have held up and liberated a transport of Jewish deportees en route to Poland. ….
On April 20, 1,500 Jews were being transported from Mechlin to Poland in cattle cars when the train was held up by a band of partisans, who overpowered the German guards …” 1943 News From Belgium • Partisans Attack 20th Convoy
Source : News From Belgium Vol. III, No. 36, September 4, 1943 | Belgian Information Center, New York (USA). | Digitized by Google.
Film License info : 1943 News From Belgium • Partisans Attack 20th Convoy | 20230228 | Miracles•Media | TakeNode e0232694-1557-485a-ac1c-fb732df0839e
A 2023 update :
April 19, 1943, at 10 PM the 20th transport left the Mechelen transit camp to deport 1,631 Jews to Auschwitz. Thanks to resistance actions, both inside and outside the wagons, 237 of these deportees managed to jump from the train that would lead them to destruction.
Bridge in the village of Kuttekoven (Borgloon, Belgium) under the railway track bed of the historical Belgian Railway Line 23 – the so-called ‘Fruitspoor’ – the old railway line 23 between Tongeren and Drieslinter, that connected Tongeren, Borgloon and Sint-Truiden. Bridge under the deportation railway track from Kazerne Dossin to Auschwitz, right after the site where Simon Gronowski escaped from the 20th convoy. Filmed Jan 2014.
License info : Kuttekoven Bridge Railway Line 23 | 20230223 | Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media | TakeNode de90531a-80d0-4416-8ba5-46361a379ca9
The former Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer in the Netherlands, H.A. Rauter, must stand trial in The Hague for his crimes, which he committed in World War II. Hanns A. Rauter, an Austrian, was the highest SS official in Nazi-occupied Holland and was tasked with setting up the camps in Westerbork and other dutch cities, and the arrests , internment and deportation of Dutch Jews , Roma, Sinti, resistance workers, and other groups of Dutch people. Dutch cinema news March (week 14) 1948 (company : Polygoon Hollands Nieuws) .
The sessions will take place on 1, 2, 3 and 22 April in the former palace on the Kneuterdijk in The Hague. The court is chaired by mr. P.G.M. van Meeuwen; attorney-at-law is mr. J. Zaayer; defender (added) is mr. K. van Rijckevorsel. SHOTS: – exterior Special Court building; – a long line of interested people stands in the rain in front of the public entrance and rushes in when the door opens; Rauter arrives, with guards, in a crook’s car in the courtyard; thick file under the arm; goes in; – interior of courtroom packed with audience: Rauter (in uniform without insignia) enters and sits down between two guards; judges enter; – session starts; Rauter makes a statement standing.
The trial news continues in the previously published film : Westerbork Film in ‘Proces Rauter’ 1948 | 20190520 | Settela•Com
De vroegere Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer in Nederland, H.A. Rauter, moet in Den Haag terechtstaan voor zijn misdaden, die hij beging in de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Weekjournaal van Polygoon Hollands Nieuws van week 14 uit 1948. De zittingen hebben, op 1,2,3 en 22 april plaats in het voormalige paleis aan de Kneuterdijk. Het hof staat onder voorzitterschap van jhr. mr. P.G.M. van Meeuwen; als procureur-fiscaal treedt op mr. J. Zaayer; als (toegevoegd) verdediger mr. K. van Rijckevorsel. Beeld: – ext. gebouw Bijzonder Gerechtshof; – een lange rij belangstellenden staat in de regen voor de publieke ingang en haast zich naar binnen als de deur open gaat; – Rauter arriveert, met bewakers, in een boevenwagen op de binnenplaats; dik dossier onder de arm; gaat naar binnen; – int. van een met publiek volgepakte rechtszaal: Rauter (in uniform zonder distinctieven) komt binnen en gaat – tussen twee bewakers – zitten; rechters komen binnen; – zitting begint; Rauter legt – staande – een verklaring af.
Het proces nieuws wordt vervolgd in de eerder gepubliceerde film : Westerbork Film in ‘Proces Rauter’ 1948 | 20190520 | Settela•Com
Bron : Polygoon Hollands Nieuws / Sound & Vision (Open Beelden).
License Info : SS Führer Rauter Trial Start 1948 | 20230127 | Settela•Com | TakeNode 3d48e3a5-2fc8-4d8d-ba8b-21c07d238570
Video report of the preview 19 Jan 2023 presented by photographer Jo Struyven of photo exhibition ‘236 — Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy’.
Photo exhibition of works by Jo Struyven and Luc Tuymans in the Jewish Museum of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium | January 20 – August 14, 2023.
License info : 236 Land(es)capes 20th convoy | 20230126 | Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media | TakeNode 428839bb-7165-4771-a490-27158928ec25
On April 19, 1943, the 20th transport left the Mechelen transit camp to deport 1,631 Jews to Auschwitz. Thanks to resistance actions, both inside and outside the wagons, 236 of these deportees managed to jump from the train that would lead them to destruction.
Photographer Jo Struyven revisits this unique act of resistance in Western Europe during the Nazi regime and shows us the landscapes in which this little-known story took place.
