The Flemish village of Boortmeerbeek is notable for being the only place in Europe where a train transport of Jews was stopped by resistance fighters.
On April 19, 1943, a train pulled out of Dossin Barracks in Mechelen, Belgium. It was called Transport XX (20). It was holding 1,631 Jews. The ages of the people crammed into these cattle trucks ranged greatly. Suzanne Kaminsky was a six-week-old baby. Jacob Blom was 91 years of age. Their destination was the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz.
Such trains were commonly seen and heard leaving Mechelen on their way to Poland. In 1940, nearly 90,000 Jews were living in Belgium. Between the summer of 1942 and the summer of 1944, over 25,000 of these people were transported by 28 trains from the transit camp in the Dossin Barracks, Mechelen to eastern Europe.
Transport XX set off from Mechelen on the line to Leuven. Between the villages of Boortmeerbeek and Haacht, the train driver noticed a red light ahead, the sign of danger. The driver slammed on his brakes. But there was no danger. It was a daring action performed by three young members of the Belgian Resistance Movement: Jewish doctor Youra Livchitz and two non-Jewish accomplices Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon. Dr Livchitz flagged down the train using a lantern covered with red paper. While the train was stationary, Maistriau and Franklemon managed to cut through the barbed wire securing the sliding doors of one of the wagons.

That was all they could do. They only had one revolver between them, and the train was guarded by one officer and 40 men from the Sicherheitspolizei in Germany. After a short gun battle, the train re-started. But one of the wagons was open! 17 people dared to flee. They were given money to take the tram from Haacht to Brussels to get there safely.
236 people escaped from Transport XX
17 may not seem many, but the resistance movement had further actions up their sleeve. Understanding that the Jews were facing a terrible fate, they had prepared an escape plan. They had managed to hide saws and files and other tools in the straw of some of the wagons of Transport XX. This enabled the occupants to open some of the train wagons from the inside.
Over the next hour, a further 219 people jumped from the wagons of Transport XX and fled into the darkness. This action is a unique fact in the history of the Holocaust. Nowhere else in occupied Europe was such an action undertaken on a transport of Jews.
Of the 236 people who escaped, 91 of them were recaptured and put on the next transport to Auchwitz. 25 were killed either while escaping or shortly afterwards. 120 succeeded in their bid for freedom.
After this attack on Transport XX, the security on transport trains was reinforced with soldiers from Brussels. They would travel along with the train, until the German border.
April 19 1943 was also very symbolic because the uprising in the ghetto of Warsaw started on the very same day.
11-year-old Simon Gronowski
One boy who jumped to freedom that night was 11-year-old Simon Gronowski. In 2013 he told the BBC his story. It makes fascinating reading. He described the atrocious conditions in the wagon. “We were packed like a herd of cattle. We had only one bucket for 50 people. There was no food, no water. There were no seats so we either sat or lay down on the floor. I was in the rear right corner of the car, with my mother. It was very dark.”
Belgium’s Jewish Resistance
The Belgian Jewish Defense Committee was formed in 1942. It created fake IDs and hid about 4,000 children and 10,000 adults with non-Jewish families or religious groups. Halting Transport XX bound for Auschwitz was one of their more daring acts. They also tried to sabotage the German war machine by setting fire to factories and derailing trains. Belgian resistance fighters also attacked offices containing names and addresses of Jews in Belgium, setting fire to papers used by the Gestapo to round up individuals. Some of the Belgian railway staff were also working for the resistance. Survivors testify that they had the impression that train drivers sometimes wanted to make it easier to flee. They often slowed the train in favorable or pre-arranged places.
What happened to the the three brave resistance fighters who stopped the XX Transport?
- Youra Livchitz 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.
I did not know anything about this heroic action until I happened to stop at a railway crossing in Boortmeerbeek while cycling locally. I saw this unusual street name — XXste Konvooistraat — 20th Transport Street.

On closer inspection, below the street name was this explanation of the street name. I had never heard of this event before, so when I got home I checked out the story.

The Flemish village of Boortmeerbeek is notable for being the only place in Europe where a train transport of Jews was stopped by resistance fighters.
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Kazerne Dossin Museum in Mechelen
The Kazerne Dossin Museum remembers the ordeals of the persecution of Jews and gypsies in Belgium. It also looks at the broader aspects of the Holocaust. It considers the group pressure and collective violence that has resulted in mass murder and genocide.
The restored Memorial reopened on January 27th 2020. It is a solemn place to remember the thousands of people who waited here in fear and desperation before being loaded onto the transportation trains heading to Auchwitz and other concentration camps. Photographs and videos paint a picture of Jewish life in Belgium before the war.
Kazerne Dossin digitizes original documents about the Holocaust in Belgium and collects them in an image bank. Currently it contains more than 1.5 million documents. The most important component of this image bank includes the many portraits of deportees from the Dossin Kazerne. All of these portraits are displayed on the museum’s portrait wall. Also visible are the lists of people transported in each of the transports leaving Kazerne Dossin. You can search the Digital Image Bank.

The museum is located in Goswin de Stassartstraat 153, 2800 Mechelen. It’s open every day except Wednesdays. Entrance costs 10 EUR.
Further information on April 19 1943
There are two YouTube videos I can recommend if you want more details of what happened on April 19 1943. This one is 55 minutes long and tells the whole story, including the remarkable experiences of some of the survivors from Transport XX.
A shorter version is only viewable on YouTube.
Push: The Opera
My attention was also drawn by my blogging friend Guido to the opera Push, by Howard Moody. It’s inspired by the true story of Simon Gronowski who I mention above. Simon was pushed off the Transport XX train by his mother.
Especially for the 77th anniversary of Transport XX, Moody brought together 150 singers from Belgium and the UK willing to sing the “grand finale” to the opera. Naturally, being lockdown, the singers recorded separately at home. But thanks to the wonders of technology, that virtual choir has been forged into one whole. Watch and listen to the amazing result here:
Latest news on Push the Opera
On Sunday October 3 2021 Push will be performed in Boortmeerbeek, where Simon Gronowski fled to safety, nine days before his 90th birthday. This was covered in an article in The Guardian.
If you would like to read more stories explaining the history of Belgium, drop your email below and you will get new posts straight into your inbox. You can always contact me for more information too.
Such bravery, humbling selflessness to save others. Never heard about this before, another great thing about Belgians!
(Puts our current crisis into some perspective)
Yes remarkable considering the danger to their own lives and their family members
This is a wonderful story Denzil. The bravery of the three Belgian resistance fighters saved 120 lives and makes them wonderful role models and great heroes.
Yes Henry and tragic that the doctor didn’t make it even to the end of the war.
These people were so brave, both the Resistance and the Jews who chose to escape. It’s hard to imagine how awful it must have been.
Thanks for this post…wonderful people in a dark black age…must go and pay my respects when this isolation is lifted.
Thanks Carol, glad you found the information interesting and inspirational.
So thankful you’re making sure this part of history is never forgotten.
Thanks Joy. It grieves me to see the rise of anti-semitism these days.
Great history Denzil, I have visited Auschwitz and it’s never far from my mind. I never knew about Transport XX, ao interesting.
BTW the post is not coming through on the reader again, but I went to the full site. 🙂
I’ve never been there Frag but I can imagine it would be distressing. The Reader: if I allow the whole post there, then the whole post is also in folk’s emails, which I don’t want. Not sure how to separate the two, do you?
Nope, carry on as is 🙂
A great story of courage and bravery. My father was in the underground during the war, was arrested and send to Buchenwald in 1944 and survived, liberated in May 1945.
He must have been a tremendously strong and brave man to resist, and then survive. Was he a Belgian?
what an extraordinary tale, thank you so much for being curious enough to find out more
Great post. It reminded me of the feelings I got visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. a few years ago. Especially at the end of the tour, when you see placards for people who risked their lives to help Jewish people escape Hitler’s evil. Very moving.
I thought it was both interesting and moving to read that two of the three guys were not Jewish.
Yes. There are good people everywhere. Many of those placards on the wall at the Holocaust Museum were also non-Jewish, and I remember several even being German. Not all Germans were Nazis.
An uplifting and touching story Denzil, it’s good to know that there was hope for at least some of those put on the trains.
Thanks Andrea, yes there is often hope in the darkest of circumstances.
Yes he was, he was a career non commission officer with the Belgian Air Force and joined the underground after the surrender. We were living in Ypres, He was arrested on November 1943 and spend 6 months in jail both in Kortrijk and Gent before being shipped out to Buchenwald with the convoy of May 23 1944. the camp was liberated by the American army April 11, 1945.
Almost a year in Buchenwald. It doesn’t bear thinking about. Thanks for sharing this personal story Raphael.
This is a great story, Denzil and has added to my knowledge of WWII. (I’m a huge WWII fan.) A huge Huzza to the Belgians of that era for their efforts against the German war machine and the Final Solution.
Yes it’s difficult to put your feet in the shoes of those poor folk though and what they had to endure.
An almost unknown example of bravery. Heroic!
Great post. Glad to know more about this part of Belgium (and the world)’s history. May stories like this never be forgotten
I agree Regina, thanks for stopping by, reading and commenting.
I’m learning so much about Belgium from you!! Thanks for discovering and unraveling this story!
Thanks and best wishes to you both!
the documentary and more via this site – Documentary film “Transport XX to Auschwitz” | michelvanderburg.com
https://michelvanderburg.com/2013/04/19/transport-xx-to-auschwitz/
Thanks Michel, and also for the great work you have done and are still doing to support this initiative and keep the memories alive.
A few courageous people acting on their moral conscience duped the massive nazi war machine and freed several hundred innocent victims. This story has contemporary implications, as has all of history. Thank you for researching and sharing here, Denzil.
The opera wasn’t visible at first – I just had the chance to see it. Such a beautiful, moving performance, even more meaningful because of the production limitations from the Corona virus.
Yes I agree Sharon. A seamless performance indeed, considering the distributed nature of the choir and orchestra.
mon père né en 1901, a été déporté en 1943 après un séjour en Allemagne ou il avait joint d’autres victimes exploitées pour la construction de routes comme des esclaves. Epuises , ces travailleurs ont été embarqués dans un train retour sur Malines qui devait attendre le remplissage du train avec d’autres victimes en provenance d’Anvers. Après 48 heures enfermées dans ce train ils sont partis en route vers Auschwitz. Le train pour une raison inconnue a ralenti en pleine nuit, et mon père en pleine nuit a sauté du train après avoir encouragé d’autres déportes à faire de même. Il a été aidé par un fermier qui a pansé ses blessures et lui a donné de quoi payer le train pour revenir à Anvers ou il a retrouvé les Justes de Mons qui nous ont cachés jusqu’à la fin de la guerre. Efraim Silberman a vécu jusqu’en janvier 1980.
“Merci beaucoup Myriam pour cette histoire intéressante d’une des personnes qui s’est échappée de ce train!”
English translation of Myriam’s comment:
“My father, born in 1901, was deported in 1943 after a stay in Germany where he had joined other victims exploited for the construction of roads as slaves. Exhausted, these workers were put on a train back to Mechelen which was to wait for the train to be filled with other victims from Antwerp. After 48 hours locked up in this train they left on their way to Auschwitz. The train for some unknown reason slowed down in the middle of the night, and my father jumped off the train in the middle of the night after encouraging other deportees to do the same. He was helped by a farmer who dressed his wounds and gave him money to pay for the train to return to Antwerp where he found the Righteous of Mons who hid us until the end of the war. Efraim Silberman lived until January 1980.”