Category: post

Encounter | Miracles Docs #1 | 20240419

Brussels, Belgium. February 27th, 2009. My first encounter with the TRANSPORT XX installation outside in the Royal park in Brussels, that presented 1200 photographic portraits of Jews deported from Mechelen (Belgium) to Auschwitz, April 19th 1943. That day, Friday afternoon, the start of a weekend break in Brussels, 15 years ago, walking via the Royal park to our hotel in the Leopold Quarter of Brussels, turned out to be a turning point in my life. Next morning 3 more long takes, close-up, were recorded. Two months later – April 19, 2009 – the short film TRANSPORT XX — installation Brussels was published.

Start of Miracles Docs series at Miracles•Media , on the 81th anniversary of Transport XX , April 19th, 2024

Kazerne Dossin digitized the photo’s, that mostly are from the “National State Archives of Belgium. Ministry of Justice, Public Safety Office, Foreigner’s Police, individual files“.
Thank you: Marjan Verplancke and co-workers of the Kazerne Dossin / Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance in Mechelen (Belgium) of project “Give Them a Face”.

Citation info : Encounter | Miracles Docs #1 | Miracles•Media | 20240419 | ISAN 0000-0007-329C-0001-Q-0000-0000-X | TakeNode 420ffcda-2046-444c-b27f-826e9fd0d5a7

Canvases Transport XX – Boortmeerbeek | 20240418

Collection Marc Michiels | Miracles•Media | 20240418_01 | TakeNode 2c90e4ae-c7d9-4d1d-957b-b828f35350be

Boortmeerbeek, Belgium. May 4, 2007. Images of canvases taken two days before the May 6, 2007 commemoration of Transport XX, with the 2007 theme: ‘Give them a face’ (in collaboration with Kazerne Dossin) and the inauguration of the Boortmeerbeek canvases with the photo selection of the escapees of Transport XX on Belgian territory.


Canvases Transport XX – Boortmeerbeek | Collection Marc Michiels | Miracles•Media | 20240418_02 | TakeNode 04830756-4aff-4558-ba7b-d1547915dbcf

Parallel to the Mechelen-Leuven railway line, four large canvases of three meters high and five meters wide have been placed ‘wagon-like’ next to each other.

Canvases Transport XX – Boortmeerbeek | Collection Marc Michiels | Miracles•Media | 20240418_03 | TakeNode 0ad2bd96-35b3-466d-b3a7-0eeb83559c73

It shows the portraits of 236 deported Jews who managed to escape from the XXth transport on Belgian territory. The first of the four large canvases also features the three young men who stopped the train, Youra (Georges) Livschitz, Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau. Portraits mostly from the State Archives, Brussels, digitized by Kazerne Dossin.

Canvases Transport XX – Boortmeerbeek | Collection Marc Michiels | Miracles•Media | 20240418_04 | TakeNode cadc8443-2808-419c-a9e5-293445b127e7

Citation info : Canvases Transport XX – Boortmeerbeek | Collection Marc Michiels | Miracles•Media | 20240418

Fax Canvas Sketch ‘Transport XX’ | Miracles Making | 20240417

Fax Canvas Sketch ‘Transport XX’ | Miracles Making | Collection Marc Michiels | Miracles•Media | 20240417 01

Miracles Making… behind the scenes : Fax of sketch, April 16, 2007, archive Marc Michiels – Coordinator commemoration Transport XX, Boortmeerbeek, Belgium.
Since 2007, in Boortmeerbeek, during the commemoration of Transport XX, parallel to the Mechelen-Leuven railway line, four large canvases of three meters high and five meters wide have been placed ‘wagon-like’ next to each other. It shows the portraits of 236 deported Jews who managed to escape from the XXth transport on Belgian territory. The first of the four large canvases also features the three young men who stopped the train, Youra (Georges) Livschitz, Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau.

Fax Canvas Sketch ‘Transport XX’ | Miracles Making | Collection Marc Michiels | Miracles•Media | 20240417 02

Citation info : Fax Canvas Sketch ‘Transport XX’ | Miracles Making | Collection Marc Michiels | Miracles•Media | 20240417 | TakeNode 87cecec4-75fa-492c-b890-42f72fff129b / 47e77d7f-8522-4b6a-93e6-be182fa4020f

Transport XX Expo Our World at War | 20240416

Transport XX Expo Our World at War | Marc Michiels | Miracles•Media | 20240416

April 16, 2012, HaBoBIB, Boortmeerbeek, Belgium. Screening continuously of short film Transport XX – one minute loop edition – at the photo exhibition Our World at War, April 16 – May 31, 2012, HaBoBIB, Boortmeerbeek, Belgium | Photo : Marc Michiels (April 17, 2012)
Citation info : Transport XX Expo Our World at War | Marc Michiels | Miracles•Media | 20240416 | TakeNode bea7683d-75bf-4346-92a6-6e5930e43d40

Scout | Miracles Making | 20240415

Scout | Miracles Making | Miracles•Media | 20240415

Miracles Making… behind the scenes : Pegelsveld (Borgloon, Belgium) 16 Jan 2012. Wrong spot, but close… While we film Simon’s story, how he jumped from Transport XX – helped by his mother – we start to doubt whether this is the right place at the track of that former railway line – the ‘fruit line’. There is no trace here of a raised bed, an embankment. Actually there is trench…
A local tractor driver confirms that the trains used to run through that gully here, and further on along this railway track just before Kuttekoven on an embankment. He helps with the car route to that spot – in fact only 650 meters further along this railway track – to the actual spot we went, where Simon was pushed by his mother, jumped from Transport XX , rolled along the embankment, and escaped from that 20th convoy to Auschwitz, the night of April 19th , 1943. Picture taken by Michel van der Burg throught the tractor window, of Simon Gronowski and Max De Vries (resistance fighter) talking with the local.
Citation info : Scout | Miracles Making | Miracles•Media | 20240415 | TakeNode ac12a23f-14e1-42ed-8342-9038067c4fea

One Minute Transport XX Loop | Miracles Making | 20240414

One Minute Transport XX Loop | Miracles Making | Miracles•Media | 20240414 01

Miracles Making… behind the scenes : April 11, 2012. Mailing Marc Michiels (Coordinator commemoration Transport XX, Boortmeerbeek, Belgium) on Wednesday April 11, 2012 the DVD-Video copies of the loop version of the 1 minute film Transport XX.
The loop edition was screening continuously at the photo exhibition ‘Our World, at War’ at HaBoBIB, Boortmeerbeek April 16 – May 31, 2012.
Citation info : One Minute Transport XX Loop | Miracles Making | Miracles•Media | 20240414 | TakeNode 3f83db67-7ce8-4924-a234-d72de6187be0