Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 On 19 April 1943, a train carrying 1,631 Jews set off from a Nazi detention camp in Belgium for the gas chambers of Auschwitz. But resistance fighters stopped the train. One boy who jumped to freedom that night retains vivid memories, 70 years later. . In February 1943, 11-year-old Simon Gronowski was sitting down for breakfast with his mother and sister in their Brussels hiding place when two Gestapo agents burst in. They were taken to the Nazis' notorious headquarters on the prestigious Avenue Louise, used as a prison for Jews and torture chamber for members of the resistance. From there, Simon and his mother and sister were transferred to the Kazerne Dossin, a detention camp 30 miles away in Mechelen, Flanders, they were deported to Auschwitz on the 19th April. Soon after leaving Mechelen, the 20th convoy was attacked by three young members of the Belgian Resistance armed with one pistol, red paper and a lantern. They made a red light, a sign for danger ahead, forcing the train driver to brake sharply. This was the first and only time during World War II that any Nazi transport carrying Jewish deportees was stopped. Robert Maistriau, one of the resistance members, recalled that terrifying moment later in his memoirs. "The brakes made a hellish noise and at first I was petrified. But then I gave myself a jolt on the basis that if you have started something you should go through with it. I held my torch in my left hand and with my right, I had to busy myself with the pliers. I was very excited and it took far too long until I had cut through the wire that secured the bolts of the sliding door. I shone my torch into the carriage and pale and frightened faces stared back at me. I shouted Sortez Sortez! and then Schnell Schnell flehen Sie! Quick, Quick, get out of here!" After a brief shooting battle between the German train guards and the three Resistance members, the train started again. Some had escaped from the opened wagon and the mood among the remaining deportees had changed. Those who had dreamed of escape suddenly become more determined and more desperate. A policeman, Jan Aerts had guessed Simon came from the Auschwitz convoy. The bodies of three escapees were lying in the police station at that very moment. However, Aerts had no intention of betraying Simon. His wife fed him and gave him clean clothes. Aerts arranged for Simon to catch a train back to Brussels where he arrived that evening. Simon was reunited that night with his father, a shopkeeper, although they spent the remaining years of the war hidden separately by Catholic families. The 20th convoy was unique in that there was an attempt to rescue the deportees. It was unique in being the only convoy from which there was what could be called a mass breakout. According to some sources, it was also unique in that although 70% of the women and girls were killed in the gas chambers immediately on arrival, the remaining women were sent to Block X of Birkenau for medical experimentation. As for the three young Belgian Resistance members who stopped the train, Youra Livschitz was captured later and executed. Jean Franklemon was arrested soon after and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was freed in May 1945. He died in 1977. Robert Maistriau was arrested in March 1944. He was liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945 and lived until 2008. 3 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abilene Slim SASS 81783 Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 And yet there are still Holocaust deniers among us. College educated no less… 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackwater 53393 Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 (edited) Historical Revisionism Edited April 21 by Blackwater 53393 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Morningwood Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 58 minutes ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said: And yet there are still Holocaust deniers among us. College educated no less… Kind of takes your breath away, doesn't it? 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abilene Slim SASS 81783 Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 14 minutes ago, Blackwater 53393 said: Historical Revisionism Not just revisionism, but denial. Just like the townsfolk surrounding the camps. 1 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watab kid Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 there are always those that deny what is being done or has been done - much of it in the name of god these days - its never going to end and we , the few , that try to remind will always be shouted down by those that are supposedly well educated but actually are lost and looking for a cause without regard to what it really means , "...Not just revisionism, but denial. ..." that is the truely sad part of all this - then and now , our campuses are currently infested with maggots' , some imported and some lost souls led astray but that will result in more of the same in the future , in some ways i wish we had the intollerance of germany yet i know that our freedoms rest in their freedom to be the idiots they are , 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 3 hours ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said: And yet there are still Holocaust deniers among us. College educated no less… Oh, I think they know it happened, They just want to try to do it again. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bad Bascomb, SASS # 47,494 Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 1 hour ago, watab kid said: .Not just revisionism, but denial. ..." that is the truely sad part of all this - then and now , our campuses are currently infested with maggots' , some imported and some lost souls led astray but that will result in more of the same in the future , in some ways i wish we had the intollerance of germany yet i know that our freedoms rest in their freedom to be the idiots they are , Yep....Rebels without a clue..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 8 hours ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said: Oh, I think they know it happened, They just want to try to do it again. Some show I saw years ago - don't remember if it was movie or TV. This pro-nazi idiot was proud of it. "Yes we did it. It needed done. Damn Jews are the curse of the world." And at the end of the show a politician - someone you would never suspect - is telling him, "You damn fool. Keep your mouth shut. Let them forget about it. Let them think it never happened. Then we can do it again." 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watab kid Posted April 22 Share Posted April 22 21 hours ago, Bad Bascomb, SASS # 47,494 said: Yep....Rebels without a clue..... you are way too kind calling them rebels - in my mind the rebels [fy family in the south] had a very defined and understood basis for their thinking , right or wrong , these campus idiots are supporting terrorist groups that have that without even understanding what they are supporting , if on the other hand they do understand - i think we have rooms in Guantanamo that are unoccupied for exactly this kind of people , when the next strike occurs here - and its coming soon , i blame first the open boarder people - hang them from light poles - and secondly the idiots that think communism is a good thing , 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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