This week I read, with some surprise, that during WWII there
was only one action to stop a Nazi train filled with Jews and Roma gypsies going
to Auschwitz, one, and that train was stopped in 1943 by 3 young Belgians.
On 19 April 1943 the Nazis forced 1631, mostly Polish Jews,
onto a goods train (this was the 1st time they’d used a goods train
as there had been some escapees from the normal passenger carriages used until
then) from the Dessin transit camp in Mechelen.
“Between August and December 1942, two transports with about 1,000 Jews each left the camp every week for Auschwitz-Birkenau. Between the 4 August 1942 and 31 July 1944, a total of 28 trains left Mechelen for Poland, carrying 24,916 Jews and 351 Roma;[1] most of them went to Auschwitz-Birkenau. This figure represented more than half of the Belgian Jews murdered during the Holocaust.”
The
doors of these goods trains war tied closed with barbed wire and each carriage
had one Jewish monitor who was supposed to keep the people calm and under
control. Three young men from Brussels, all school friends from the Atheneum in
Uccle, Brussels: Youra Livschitz (Georges Livchitz), Robert Maistriau and Jean
Franklemon, decided that they had to try and do something about the awful situation
(Livshitz’s brother was in the Resistance and they all had an idea that there
was more to these deportations than what the Nazi’s claimed, but no one had any
hard evidence.) and decided to stop the next Jewish train to Auschwitz. They
discussed their plans with the Partisans who warned them that, considering the
ruthless efficiency of the Nazi forces and Gestapo, it was too risky and
amounted to nothing more than suicide. At that stage of the war the Nazis
seemed invincible and all-seeing. The 3 young men nevertheless decided to carry
out their crazy plan.
So, on the night of 19 April, with no experience or
equipment, (they had 1 revolver and a lamp) they used a red lamp, placed it on
the railway line, just outside Mechelen, and waited for transport XX, which was
protected by a special Sichereitspolizei contingent
from Germany. To their surprise the train driver saw the red lamp and actually
stopped! The 3 young men were so shocked they were initially quite numb.
“Under the command of Georges Livchitz, the group
forced the train to stop by signalling it with a red lantern. Livchitz held the
engineer at bay with a small calibre revolver, while his comrades, Robert
Maistriau and Jean Franklemon, forced open the doors of several cars. They used
the German language to get the people to jump out (they knew that most of the
Jews were from Poland), the monitor however urged the people to stay. During
the ensuing gun battle 15 managed to escape. They were given some money by the
3 young heroes and taken to a nearby bus stop. Unfortunately many of them were subsequently
re-arrested and some were shot. But this action so inspired the remaining Jews
of transport XX that there was a second, spontaneous escape action on that
train (using tools smuggled onto the train beforehand by the partisans of
Livshitz) , just before it crossed over into Poland, and all in all 231 people
escaped, of whom 90 were re-arrested.
Eluding capture for weeks, Livchitz was arrested, (betrayed by his best friend) escaped the next day, and was arrested a second time on June 2, 1943. The report of his trial described his actions:
“He was the leader of a band of terrorists and participated in the attack [sic] of 19 April 1943 against the Jewish deportation train. The accused admits that after his flight he shot at the soldiers who pursued him. He was arrested for the first time on 14 May 1943 but succeeded in seizing the revolver of a guard in the cellar of a local police office. He grievously wounded the guard and managed to escape. On his subsequent arrest he was sent to Breedonck [a concentration camp in Belgium].”
Georges Livchitz was executed in February 1944 by a German firing squad.
Eluding capture for weeks, Livchitz was arrested, (betrayed by his best friend) escaped the next day, and was arrested a second time on June 2, 1943. The report of his trial described his actions:
“He was the leader of a band of terrorists and participated in the attack [sic] of 19 April 1943 against the Jewish deportation train. The accused admits that after his flight he shot at the soldiers who pursued him. He was arrested for the first time on 14 May 1943 but succeeded in seizing the revolver of a guard in the cellar of a local police office. He grievously wounded the guard and managed to escape. On his subsequent arrest he was sent to Breedonck [a concentration camp in Belgium].”
Georges Livchitz was executed in February 1944 by a German firing squad.
To my mind a real hero - certainly not the
stereotype of the cowering Jew, an image which Nazi propaganda spread at the
time. He was fearless, courageous to the point of stupidity and executed his
plans without thought of personal safety.
Fitting then that the only time a “Judentrein” to Auschwitz was stopped in
all those years, it was done by a Jew.
