Finally liberated – no blame, no victim.
Book presentation 30 April 2013 in the Filigranes library Brussels by Herman Van Goethem (Conservator Kazerne Dossin) and the authors Simon Gronowski and Koenraad Tinel.
Available in French as ‘Enfin libérés‘ and in Dutch as ‘Eindelijk bevrijd‘. More info
Photo report (video frames): Michel van der Burg

Song: Yellow triangle by Strijdkoor KONTRARIE – All Rights Reserved
Video: Yellow triangle by Michel van der Burg (michelvanderburg.com)
License: Creative Commons Attribution (dutch: Naamsvermelding)
Words and Music: based on a poem by Martin Niemöller / Words: Christy Moore
Music Adaptation: Luc Wynants (conductor KONTRARIE)

“Yellow triangle” – KONTRARIE (www.kontrarie.be)
“In het spoor van Transport XX na 70 jaar” – 21 April 2013, Boortmeerbeek, België
Image: Michel van der Burg (michelvanderburg.com)

Words (Dutch & French translation below):

Black triangle, pink triangle, green triangle,
red triangle, blue triangle, lilac triangle,
And they wore the yellow triangle.

When first they came for the criminals, I did not speak.
Then they began to take the Jews.
When they fetched the people who were members of trade unions … I did not speak.
They took the Bible students, rounded up the homosexuals.
Then they gathered up the immigrants and the gypsies … I did not speak.
Eventually they came for me …
and there was no one left to speak.

Black triangle, pink triangle, green triangle,
red triangle, blue triangle, lilac triangle,
And they wore the yellow triangle (3x).

Vertaling (Dutch translation by Michel van der Burg):

Zwarte driehoek, roze driehoek, groene driehoek,
rode driehoek, blauwe driehoek, paarse driehoek,
en ze droegen de gele driehoek.

Eerst kwamen ze voor de misdadigers, ik zei niets.
Toen begonnen ze de joden op te pakken.
Toen ze de vakbondsmensen kwamen halen, zei ik niets.
Ze pakten de bijbelstudenten op, en de homoseksuelen.
Toen werden immigranten en de zigeuners opgepakt … ik protesteerde niet.
Toen, tenslotte, kwamen ze voor mij,
en was er niemand meer over om te protesteren.

Zwarte driehoek, roze driehoek, groene driehoek,
rode driehoek, blauwe driehoek, paarse driehoek,
en ze droegen de gele driehoek.

Traduction (French translation by Michel van der Burg):

Triangle noir, triangle rose, triangle vert,
triangle rouge, triangle bleu, triangle violet,
et ils portaient le triangle jaune.

La première fois, ils sont venus chercher les criminels, je n’ai rien dit.
Puis ils sont venus chercher les juifs.
Lorsqu’ils sont venus chercher les syndicalistes, je n’ai rien dit.
Ils sont venus chercher les étudiants de la bible,
et ramasser les homosexuels.
Puis ils ont ramassé les immigrants et les gitans … je n’ai rien dit.
Quand, enfin, ils sont venus me chercher,
il ne restait plus personne pour protester.

Triangle noir, triangle rose, triangle vert,
triangle rouge, triangle bleu, triangle violet,
et ils portent le triangle jaune.

More info (dutch):
Martin Niemöller, Lutheraans theoloog en dominee werd in 1937 door de nazi’s aangehouden en verbleef gedurende 8 jaar in verschillende concentratiekampen. Het gedicht waarop dit lied gebaseerd is schreef hij in 1945.
Met zijn lied wil Christy Moore protesteren tegen de apathie, die hij ‘het geweld van de stilte’ noemt en ‘het terrorisme van de apathie’.
In de kampen droegen de gevangenen gekleurde driehoeken, naargelang de categorie waartoe ze behoorden.
De Joden droegen een gele driehoek, vaak met een driehoek van een andere kleur erover (Davidster). Politieke gevangenen (communisten, vakbondsmensen) droegen een rode driehoek, homoseksuele gevangenen een roze, Jehovah’s getuigen een purperen driehoek. Groene driehoeken waren voor gewone misdadigers, zwarte voor zogenaamde ‘asocialen’, bruine voor zigeuners, witte voor werkweigeraars en blauwe driehoeken voor krijgsgevangenen uit bezette landen.

Updates

13 May 2013
- supplemented French translation lyrics
- adapted/corrected Dutch translation lyrics

19 April 1943 – 70 years later
Attack on the train to Auschwitz. Discussion with Simon Gronowski.
19 April 2013, Belgium, Brussels, Rue du Commerce 51.
(Poster: David Goddevrind – diarama.be)

Watch online now:
“Transport XX to Auschwitz – a film by Karen Lynne & Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg”.

The attack on this deportation train in Belgium – by three young men – the rescue, and the many escapes and escape attemps are documented in this film.

Today 70 years ago – on the night of April 19, 1943 – this remarkable heroic rescue occured in Belgium, were 17 people were liberated during an attack on the cattle car train ‘Transport XX’ – crammed with 1631 Jewish passengers, heading for Auschwitz – and another more than 200 others jumped out also.

During the Nazi occupation of Belgium 28 train convoys with over 25,000 Jews and 351 Roma left Mechelen towards the Auschwitz extermination camp.
On the night of April 19, 1943, the 20th transport headed East with 1631 Jewish passengers crammed into 40 cattle cars.
This ‘Transport XX’ left the Mechelen transit camp ‘Kazerne Dossin’ at 10 pm. and was attacked and stopped some 30 minutes later outside Brussels – near Boortmeerbeek.
Armed with only 1 pistol, pliers and an improvised red hurricane lamp the three young Belgians Robert Maistriau, Jean Franklemon, and Youra Livschitz – old schoolmates – stopped the train by putting the red lamp in the middle of rails. They were able to open one of the cattle cars and liberated 17 men and women. Another more than 200 prisoners escape from the train before the German border. Many were shot and 26 were killed. Eventually, half of them succeeded to escape.

The attack, rescue, and many escapes and escape attemps from this 20th deportation train in Belgium are documented in this newly released film “Transport XX to Auschwitz” by the first-hand accounts of one of the attackers, people that jumped from the train and survivors who returned from Auschwitz.
This attack by three young man, who follow their heart, is the only documented attack on a death train during the Shoah.

Simon Gronowski beside deportation wagon – image from interview video by Michel van der Burg. Original photo: Pierre Salmon

The film “Transport XX to Auschwitz” documents the attack and rescue story of one of the attackers, Robert Maistriau, and several escape attempts and escapes of the deportees: Régine Krochmal, Louis de Groot and his brother, the 11 year old Simon Gronowski, Lilly Wolkenfeld Schwartz and her friends, Gunther and Marie Mendel, Willy Berler, Louis Micheels who as doctor in charge of patients decided not trying to escape – and others…

Régine Krochmal – portraits from Transport XX. Image: Michel van der Burg

Régine Krochmal had been active in the resistance and was a nurse. She had to escort together with a doctor the more dead then alive deportees in the ‘hospital’ car. Just before she went into the car she was warned by the Jewish camp doctor of the Dossin barracks, who gave her a knife with the words: “Cut the bars, jump, because they will burn you“.
Régine, had to fight off the accompanying doctor in her car who was trying to prevent her from sawing through the bars of the small vent in order to escape. She jumped out the very same moment the train was attacked and stopped.

Then when the train stops, the attacker Robert Maistriau cuts the barbed wire on the sliding door of one of the cars, opens the door and calls “Fliehen Sie, Fliehen Sie!” At first people are confused and scared – but then 17 people jumped out and escaped, while the Germans were shooting. He next starts working on a second car, but the train began moving…

In every car the Germans had appointed one prisoner responsible for preventing and reporting attempts to escapes. Louis de Groot – was one of these appointed ‘guards’ and was told “When anybody escapes, or you let anybody escape, everybody is killed!“. He, however, calmed down the scared people in his car. “They did not want to let me out of that – they were so afraid – that I – that we will be killed. So, I say ‘no – I arrange it for you’. I was quite an acrobat. So, we broke open that little air thing…“. He, together with some others managed to break open the little ventilation window. Louis then took a girl with him when he jumped – together with his brother Abraham and two boys.

In a scene from the film “Transport XX to Auschwitz,” Simon Gronowski stands at the spot where he jumped from the train 70 years ago – near the village of Kuttekoven. (Photo: Marc Van Roosbroeck)

Simon Gronowski was only 11 years old when he was helped by his mother to jump from the train, and survived – unlike his mother who was gassed at Auschwitz. Simon was ‘lucky’. He was taken care of by the Belgian gendarme Jean Aerts and his wife, and not betrayed. That salvation was no exception: almost all refugees from the deportation train survived with the help of the Belgian population. Simon Gronowski was the youngest person to ever escape from a death train.

Lilly Wolkenfeld Schwartz had to push her Belgian friend Lilian to jump from the train. The train was moving fast when guys in the compartment of Lilly and her friends Bella and Lilian managed to open the doors. Bella and a lot of other people jumped, but Lilian said “…I can’t“. So Lilly pushed her to jump, and jumped after her. Lilly: “…and as I jumped I had a bullet here, which I found out later…“

Both Gunther Mendel and Marie (Neufeld) Mendel too managed to escape via the little ventilation window and jumped. Gunther: “I went out foot first…you have to throw yourself backwards, because the train was doing maybe 30-40 miles an hour..“. Marie: “..I jumped out – I let myself out - and I lost a shoe…“

Louis Micheels had thought of escaping, but as he was responsible for the seriously ill patients in the hospital car – then thought “how can I, as a doctor in charge of patients in this transport, how can I desert and escape?“. Upon arrival in Auschwitz however “my patients were dragged out, thrown on the truck like they were cattle, dead cattle..“

When Willy Berler was about to jump off the train, he saw that the unfortunate man who had jumped before him, was stuck to the train with his head crushed like a melon. Willy did not jump. “If I had known …. about Auschwitz …. I would have jumped.“

These are remarkable stories of the heroic rescue, escapes, and escape attempts from Transport XX to Auschwitz, which occurred on April 19, 1943 – the first night of Passover – when, at the same time, also the Warsaw Ghetto uprising began, some 720 miles away.

During the Shoah, the Nazis, in their quest for the ‘final solution’ of the Jewish question, utilized thousands of such trains from Germany and the occupied countries to transport 3,000,000 Jews to the concentration and death camps.

Film festivals & holocaust education programs

This documentary is available for Jewish and other film festivals as well as holocaust education programs.

For more info contact: Richard Bloom (Richard Bloom Productions – USA) or Michel van der Burg (michelvanderburg.com)

Currently (as of Jan. 2013) the film is available for viewing in the world holocaust museums and centers:

- the Yad Vashem’s Visual Center (Israel) – Library Catalog

- the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, DC

- Kazerne Dossin. Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights. – Documentation Centre

-

Screenings

The film “Transport XX to Auschwitz” premiered at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) 2012 – and was screened in October at the main film festival theatre Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale, and again in November in Sunrise, Florida.

Early this month screenings at Jewish community centers followed in commemorations of Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day – in Florida and the Greater Washington area

Contact info
Richard Bloom (Richard Bloom Productions – USA)
Michel van der Burg (michelvanderburg.com)

Reactions

Following the news of the film other stories are emerging.
- Film tells story of daring attack on train to Auschwitz – Jewish Journal
- A Story of Transport XX – April 19, 1943 – by Audrey Rogers Furfaro

NEWS

Escaping the train to Auschwitz
BBC News – 19 April 2013 – By Althea Williams and Sarah Ehrlich

This day in Jewish history / Daring escape from an Auschwitz-bound train
HAARETZ – Apr.19, 2013 – By David B. Green

Updates
- post updated April 20 by adding News section and news items

De cirkel – hommage aan Marie Hertzdahl – Bloemgarten © 2013 Marja Pinckaers / dbnl (cover art: Aleksangel)

Februari 2013 verscheen online in de Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren (DBNL) het sublieme boek “De cirkel” van Marja Pinckaers, een hommage aan haar grootmoeder Marie Hertzdahl – Bloemgarten, die 19 april 1943 met Transport XX vanuit Mechelen naar Auschwitz werd gedeporteerd, en de verschrikkingen van het kamp overleefde.

‘BEN JIJ WEL EENS IN AUSCHWITZ GEWEEST?’ e-mailde mijn jongste nichtje Stéphanie. Op mijn ontkennend antwoord kwam prompt de vraag of ik met haar mee wilde.
….
Al jaren dacht ik over een bezoek aan Auschwitz, de plek waar mijn oma, Marie Hertzdahl-Bloemgartenz, bijna twee jaar gevangen had gezeten. Waar mijn grootvader, Salomon Victor Hertzdahl, was vermoord.
….
Ik wilde Blok 10 zien, het experimentenblok, waar mijn grootmoeder ‘werkte’ als Schwester Marie. Daar was zij toeverlaat voor vrouwen op wie de kampartsen de vreselijkste medische experimenten uitvoerden en die ze uiteindelijk ook zelf onderging.
….
Ik wilde die verschrikkelijke gevangenis zien waar mijn oma zo lang verbleef en die ze, wonder boven wonder – ze was immers al zesenveertig jaar toen ze in Auschwitz arriveerde – overleefde. Ook de rails wilde ik zien, waarover in april 1943 het transport XX uit het Belgische Mechelen eindstation Auschwitz binnenliep. Het transport met oma, oom Sylvain en Ima Spanjaard; aan boord. Over datzelfde spoor was mijn opa een jaar eerder gearriveerd in Auschwitz. Weggevoerd vanuit Nederland met één van de eerste transporten uit Westerbork ‘naar het oosten’.

Uit de online uitgave in DBNL: De cirkel. Hommage aan Marie Hertzdahl-Bloemgarten – Marja Pinckaers © 2013 dbnl / Marja Pinckaers

“Transport XX to Auschwitz” film – followed by discussion with filmmaker Richard Bloom – at Beit David Highland Lakes Shul, Florida (USA)

Feb. 3, 2013 – Dossin barracks, Mechelen (Belgium) – Collecting Transport XX these months 70 years ago. Photomontage: Michel van der Burg (michelvanderburg.com)

February 1868, Papal State, Rome – Albert van der Burg, Zouave.
Albert (my great-grandfather) joined as a 16 year old boy the Papal Zouaves from February 5, 1868 until 1870. © 2013 Michel van der Burg, all rights reserved

“Finally liberated” (Enfin libérés) – Simon Gronowski, Koenraad Tinel, David Van Reybrouck.

War children Simon Gronowski and Koenraad Tinel
Both the lawyer Simon Gronowski and the artist Koenraad Tinel have spent their childhood during the Second World War. The first born in a Jewish family in Belgium, and the second born in a Belgian (Flemish) family of ‘flamingant’ nazi collaborators.
The two men met early past year at the initiative of Sacha Rangoni, a 16 year old boy and member (monitor) of the UPJB, the Union of Progressive Jews of Belgium at a meeting of the UPJB early last year.
They have recently become close friends, and together made a special book – a genuine plea for humanity.

The story and budding friendship of these two ‘children’ who survived the horrors of this dark chapter in our history was first told in the last year’s documentary “Oorlogskinderen” (War children) from Marianne Soetewey.
Simon Gronowski and Koenraad Tinel are nine and six years, respectively, as the Second World War broke out, and experienced because of their different origins the war completely different.

Simon Gronowski grew up in Brussels (Belgium) in a Jewish family and ends up together with his mother and sister in 1943 in the Dossin barracks in Mechelen (Belgium). From there starts the transport to Auschwitz. Simon at the age of eleven years can narrowly escape from this 20th convoy by jumping from the train. His mother and sister did not return from Auschwitz. His father died shortly after the war sick and broken by sorrow.

The sixteen years old Sacha Rangoni first learns the story of the artist Koenraad Tinel while watching his theatre show “Scheisseimer” (‘shit-bucket’) where Koenraad Tinel told with the help of his ink drawings his fate as a son and brother of Nazi collaborators.
Koenraad Tinel grew up in a family of hard-core nazi-minded Flamingants (Flemish nationalists) . His father encouraged his older brothers to join the Waffen-SS and work as a camp guard in the Dossin barracks. At the end of the war he fled with his family to Germany, for fear of the possible consequences of the Nazi sympathies of his father Tinel.
Sacha then organised a meeting between Koenraad Tinel and Simon Gronowski…

These children of war, Simon and Koen, have long felt the burden of the past. Until after nearly 70 years this special event in their lives, brought them together. This unlikely encounter has born a steadfast friendship – and is testified also now in the soon to be released book they made, called “Enfin libérés” (Finally liberated).

Neither victim nor guilty, finally liberated – “Ni victime, ni coupable, enfin libérés”

“Neither victim nor guilty, finally liberated” is the translation of the full title of the French edition of this book “Ni victime, ni coupable, enfin libérés” – a testimony of this healing friendship depicted by Koenraad Tinel’s drawings, put into words by Simon Gronowski and Filip Rogiers, and put into perspective in an essay by historian and writer David Van Reybrouck. The book’s release is expected April 18th, 2013 by the publisher “La Renaissance du Livre“.

Reportage “Quai des Belges : Enfin libérés”

On the occasion of this upcoming book release – is shown today on Belgian TV (ARTE Belgique) both a rerun of the 2012 documentary ‘War children’ (Oorlogskinderen), and also a brand new reportage, called “Quai des Belges : Enfin libérés” (filmed by A. Bourgeois and P. Navez) of the interview of Sacha Rangoni and Simon Gronowski that took place early this month in Kazerne Dossin (Kazerne Dossin – Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights in Mechelen, Belgium) together with Herman Van Goethem, historian and conservator of the museum, and the historian and writer David van Reybrouck.

Broadcast and online video excerpt

Broadcasting on Belgian TV is both today (13/03) via ARTE Belgique in the Quai des Belges Magazine, and later again on 23/04 via the Belgian VRT ‘Canvas’ channel and on 25/04 via the RTBF ‘la deux’ channel.

Online video “Quai des Belges : Enfin libérés”
Online is a 3 min excerpt (Video: A. Bourgeois and P. Navez) of this new interview of Sacha Rangoni and Simon Gronowski that took place early this month in Kazerne Dossin (Kazerne Dossin – Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights in Mechelen, Belgium).

Sources used for this post:

Personal communication (unpublished reports) – Simon Gronowski and Koenraad Tinel

UPJB – article – ni victime ni coupable enfin libérés

cobra.be – documentaire oorlogskinderen

ARTE belgique – Quai des Belges – Oorlogskinderen

Théâtre Les Tanneurs – “Scheisseimer”

Quai des Belges / Vlaamse Kaai – Magazine
Les enfants de la guerre: interview exclusive (11/03 2013 | P. Navez & C. Bouniton)

Quai des Belges: Direct link to Interview Simon Gronowski (video excerpt)

Notes

First published March 13, 2013
First update March 15
- changed introductory lines
- removed redundant text, and made other minor corrections
Update May 9
- section below on ‘Books available now..’
- section below ‘Report book presentation’

Books available now (update May, 2013):

Dutch version of the book
Eindelijk bevrijd. Geen schuld, geen slachtoffer.
Simon Gronowski / Koenraad Tinel / David Van Reybrouck
Hannibal publisher (www.uitgeverijkannibaal.be)

French version of the book
Ni victime, ni coupable. Enfin libérés.
Simon Gronowski / Koenraad Tinel / David Van Reybrouck
Publisher “La Renaissance du Livre” (www.renaissancedulivre.be)

Book presentation 30 April 2013 in the Filigranes library Brussels

New on this site a photo report of the book presentation on 30 April 2013 in the Filigranes library in Brussels by Herman Van Goethem (Conservator Kazerne Dossin) and the authors Simon Gronowski and Koenraad Tinel.