After starting working together online from 2014 on the documentary Viviane’s Story (see e-book on Miracles.Media) now a live meetup in Brussels with Viviane, April 17th 2023, near the Church of Saint Catherine, for several commemoration events on Transport XX to Auschwitz, the deportation train leaving Mechelen 80 years ago, the unique attack, other resistance acts, the rescue, and escapes of over 200 people jumping from that deportation train in the night of April 19th-20th in 1943 – including Isabella Weinreb, pregnant 3 months with Viviane , who was born 6 months later.
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Eight drawings by Jim (Haïm) Kaliski, 1995-1999, indian ink on paper. Filmed April 19, 2023 in the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in Brussels, at the exhibition ‘236 – Land(es)capes from the 20th convoy’. 1) Pogrom Antwerp, 14 April 1941
2) The Summons for Mechelen “The Trap”
3) Mechelen Waiting Room of Death , 1942-1944
4) The Time of Darkness, 1942-1944
5) Razzia Rue Bara , Anderlecht (Brussels), 3 Sep 1942
6) Attack 20th Convoy, 19 April 1943
7) At the road ‘Chaussée d’Etterbeek’ (Brussels), Feb. 1944
8) Haïm from Etterbeek, Mar 1944
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Youra (Georges) Livschitz (1917-1944) pastel portrait, Brussels ca. 1933. Youra together with Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon, attacked the 20th convoy on 19 April 1943, freeing 17 deportees, a unique event in occupied Europe. Filmed April 19, 2023 in the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in Brussels, at the exhibition ‘236 – Land(es)capes from the 20th convoy’ (Invent 03399).
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Nationale Bibliotheek Bulletin – Viviane’s story | 20230421 | Miracles•Media
Nationale Bibliotheek bulletin 4-5 May 2023 in the Netherlands : Boeken over de Tweede Wereldoorlog ~ Verschenen in Nederland in 2022 en 2023.
National Library (Royal Library) Netherlands : Books about the Second World War | Published in the Netherlands in 2022 and 2023.) Royal Library Netherlands
PDF – Page 11 Viviane’s story : escape from transport XX…born 6 month’s later Viviane Yarom-Castegnier (1943-) (ISNI 0000 0005 0884 2840) | Miracles.Media | ISBN: 978-94-93147-00-3
Download e-Book (ePub with films, and PDF with images only) available both via Nationale Bibliotheek (kb.nl) and via Miracles.Media.
Today 80 years ago, Isabella Weinreb was three months pregnant with Viviane , when she jumped in the night of 19-20 April 1943, around 2AM from the 20th deportation train – Transport XX – from Mechelen direction Auschwitz.
Isabella escaped with a broken wrist , and knocked on the door of this St. Kamillus institute in Bierbeek, where she was helped further on her escape route back home in Brussels. Viviane was born 6 months later at in Brussels.
Viviane, who is now living in the USA, returned this week – on Holocaust Remembrance Day – to the place her mother escaped and saved both their lives, together with photographer Jo Struyven , author Nathalie Strubbe, and documentary filmmaker Michel van der Burg. During the St. Kamillus visit , reporter Tom de Leur made with photographer Dirk Vertommen an interview published April 19, 2023 in the flemish Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblad – https://m.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20230418_97055388 – “Vivianes moeder was zwanger van haar toen ze van de trein sprong die haar naar de gaskamers moest leiden”
Yesterday, April 19, 2023 , Viviane Yarom told her story of the escape from Transport XX, at the Study Day on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the 20th convoy presented by the Jewish Museum of Belgium and The Auschwitz Foundation in the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in Brussels.
In the Jewish Museum of Belgium , the exhibition ‘236 – Land(es)capes from the 20th convoy’ by Jo Struyven and Luc Tuymans, runs until Mon 14 August.
April 19th also the catalog book by Jo Struyven and Daniel Weyssow (Auschwitz Foundation) was published , which includes dutch and french editions of “Escape from Transport XX…born 6 months later” translated from the original english text of a chapter in the ebook published April 19, 2019 : Viviane Yarom-Castegnier & Michel van der Burg. ‘Viviane’s Story: Escape from Transport XX… Born 6 Months Later’. Download available via Miracles.Media – https://miracles.media/vivianesstory/.
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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.
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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.
