Tag: deportation

Site Of Attack On Transport XX

Site of the attack on the deportation train ‘Transport XX’ – a cattle car train crammed with 1631 Jewish passengers, heading for Auschwitz.

Here in Boortmeerbeek , Belgium, the night of April 19, 1943, three young men from Brussels – Youra Livschitz, Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon – attacked and stopped this cattle car train,  succeeded in opening one of the cars and liberate 17 people. Another more than 200 others could jump out also before the train reached the German border. Site filmed May 15, 2011.

Memory Track

Régine Krochmal and Francine Mayran at the 2011 commemoration of Transport XX in Boortmeerbeek (Belgium) – listening to the poem “Ce que j’ai encore à vous dire” by Serge Smulevic – read by his cousin Georges Rakier.

… Aujourd’hui
c’est la renaissance du racisme
c’est l’espérance du fascisme
Ils sont de retour, à nouveau Tous ces anciens fléaux !
Aujourd’hui
J’ai soixante-quinze ans
La colère me retourne les sangs …

Serge Smulevic (20 April 1996)

Oh My Kinneret – Ameet

① memo 20160420 ~ Oh My Kinneret – Ameet ~ “Oh my Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) … oh my Kinneret did you exist, or did I dream a dream. From Ameet Kanon singing Ve’ulai to honor her great-grandmother’s memory – who was three-months pregnant that night on April 1943 in Belgium, when she jumped from the fast moving 20th Train heading for Auschwitz. Los Angeles , Holocaust Remembrance Day 2014 . Here a link to her complete song Ve’ulai.

Film Filmer Transport XX

① memo 20160228 #2 ~ Film Filmer Transport XX ~ A second version now of the film posted earlier today.
This #2 version has the image stabilised (using editing software Final Cut X) and to optimise the stabilisation results the video is shortened also.
This video was made while I was filming in one long take one row of the portraits of the TRANSPORT XX installation in Brussels, on February 28, 2009.
The short film I made then, and info on the TRANSPORT XX installation in Brussels , is available via this link on my web site.