Kuttekoven (Borgloon), Belgium. Sunday, January 26th, 2014. At nightfall, Simon Gronowski recounts to people of Kuttekoven, his daring escape – helped by his mother Chana Kaplan that rainy night of April 19, 1943 – from the 20th deportation train to Auschwitz, at this very spot on the railway track bed (of the so-called ‘Fruitspoor’) where it enters the village of Kuttekoven.
Watch film at Miracles•Media – link
https://miracles.media/2024/07/05/escape-miracles-docs-4-20240705/
From May 8th to May 24th, 2010, the memorial installation “Open Memory” was on display in a prominent location in Köln (Cologne, Germany) — in front of the Hohenzollern Bridge, at the left bank of the Rhine river, parallel to the railway tracks of the Cologne Central Station (Köln Hauptbahnhof), with the Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) in the background.
It consisted of 26 large canvases on which portraits of more than 1,500 people were depicted. This open-air exhibition was intended to commemorate three events that occurred during this period: the end of the Second World War in Europe on May 8th and 9th, 1945, the 70th anniversary of the attack by the German Wehrmacht on the Benelux countries and France, and the 70th anniversary of the deportation of the Sinti and Roma from Cologne and the Rhineland (Western Germany).
The Museum La Coupole had created six canvases with photographs or silhouettes of 351 Sinti and Roma from Northern France and Belgium, deported with “Transport Z” in January 1944 from Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen, Belgium to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
On 20 other canvases were the portraits of 1,200 Jewish people deported with “Transport XX” in April 1943 from Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen to Auschwitz. This exhibition was created by the Jewish Deportation and Resistance Museum (Kazerne Dossin) in Mechelen. “Transport XX” is the only deportation train in Europe that was stopped by a resistance group.
The exhibition lined the route Roma and Sinti from Köln had to take from May 1940 en route across the Rhine via the Hohenzollern Bridge to the Cologne Fair (Köln Messe) transit camp for deportation to the extermination camps. The route was marked May 6, 1990, by the artist Gunter Demnig (later known for his Stolperstein project) by printing the writing “May 1940 – 1000 Sinti and Roma” on the streets in Cologne, using a wheel for painting with white paint.
The Open Memory installation was presented by : the Jewish Deportation and Resistance Museum (Kazerne Dossin) in Mechelen, Belgium • La Coupole – History Centre in Wizernes, France • NS Documentation Center Cologne • AK Memorial Centers NRW • Yavne Memorial and Educational Center • EL-DE-Haus Cologne.
Film by : Michel van der Burg, thanks to an amateur (2010) slide presentation by A. Lototsky
Citation info : Open Memory | Miracles Docs #3 | Miracles•Media | 20240523 | ISAN 0000-0007-329C-0003-M-0000-0000-8 | TakeNode 4e398109-d461-4a41-84d7-8d74756c82d8
Construction of the new Kazerne Dossin museum, across the Dossin barracks – transit camp during WWII – housing both the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, as well as apartments, April 20, 2011, Mechelen, Belgium.
Citation info : Construction Kazerne Dossin | Miracles•Media | 20240424 | TakeNode 7865a3f9-5a76-479f-af10-306a60fe982b
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 : Close Up | Miracles Docs #2 | Miracles•Media | 20240423 | ISAN 0000-0007-329C-0002-O-0000-0000-2 | TakeNode bd204248-3ea2-4bd2-94f0-a17ed8aaa372
Last night, 81 years ago, the night of April 19-20, 1943, the 20th train convoy departed the Dossin barracks (Kazerne Dossin) in Mechelen (Belgium) with 33 cattle cars crammed with 1631 Jewish men, women and children for Auschwitz.
Half an hour after the departure of this Transport XX three young men from Brussels, Youra Livschitz, Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau stopped the train between Boortmeerbeek and Haacht, opened one of the cars and liberated 17 prisoners.
Yesterday , April 19, 2024, the memorial ‘4-Life’ was inaugurated in Korbeek-Lo with a speech by the initiator, researcher, Jo Peeters — curator of the nearby Museum House of the Belgian-French Resistance — on the history of the second attack later that night at Korbeek-Lo, 81 years ago .
More at Miracles site…
https://miracles.media/2024/04/20/4-life-20240420/
Faces…from the film “Transport XX – face to face”.
A short evocation of the TRANSPORT XX installation in Brussels in 2009, that presented 1200 portraits of Jews deported from the Dossin Barracks in Malines (Belgium) to Auschwitz on 19 april 1943. Many deportees managed to escape from this 20th train convoy…
Start of Miracles Photo Stories at Miracles•Media , on the 81th anniversary of Transport XX , April 19th, 2024
Kazerne Dossin digitalized 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) and project “Give them a Face”.
Citation info : Faces | Miracles Photo Story #1 | Miracles•Media | 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
