Twentieth convoy
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The Twentieth convoy (XXth convoy) was a jewish prisoner transport in Belgium organized by the Germans during World War II where an exceptional action by members of the Belgian resistance occurred to free Jewish and Gypsy civilians who were being transported by train from the Dossin army base located in Mechelen, Belgium to Auschwitz concentration camp. On April 19, 1943 three young members of the Belgian resistance succeeded in stopping the twentieth convoy on the railway track Mechelen-Leuven, between the Belgian municipalities Boortmeerbeek and Haacht. The convoy transported 1,631 Jews (men, women and children). Some of the prisoners were able to escape and marked this kind of liberation action from the Belgian resistance movement unique in the European history of the Holocaust.
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[edit] Background
In 1940, nearly 70,000 Jews were living in Belgium. Of these people, 46% were deported from the Dossin army base in Mechelen while a further 5,034 people were deported via the French village Drancy (close to Paris). The Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) in Berlin was responsible for organizing the transport and the Chief of the Dossin army base prepared the paper convoy list in triplicate. One copy was for the police officer in charge of the security during the transport, one copy was for the armybase in Mechelen and the third copy was for the BSD-department located in Brussels. Because all the paper copies from the Dossin army base were preserved, historians have been able to trace and map all the German convoys of Belgian Jews to the concentration camps. From the summer of 1942 till 1944, twenty-eight convoys left Belgium to bring 25,257 Jews and 351 Roma-gipsies to Eastern-Europe. Their destination was often Auschwitz. On April 19, 1943, the twentieth convoy left with 1631 persons, heading for Germany.
[edit] The action of the resistance
Three young students and members of the Belgian resistance (Georges Livschitz, Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon), armed with one pistol, a lantern and red paper, were able to stop the train on the track Mechelen-Leuven, between the municipalities of Boortmeerbeek and Haacht. This kind of liberation action is unique in the history of the Holocaust as no other similar release from a transport of Jews was engineered during World War II. The twentieth convoy was guarded by one officer and fifteen men from the Sicherheitspolizei, who came from Germany. Despite this security measure, Maistriau was able to open one wagon and liberate 231 persons: 90 Jews who were re-captured and put on another convoy, 26 others who were killed and 115 who succeeded in their escape. The youngest (Simon Gronowski) was only 11 years old. Regine Krochmal, an eighteen year old nurse with the resistance, also escaped after she cut the wooden bars put in front of the train air inlet with a breadknife and jumped from the train near Haacht. Both survived World War II.
[edit] Direction Auschwitz
On April 22, 1943 the train of the twentieth convoy arrives in Auschwitz. During the selection only 521 ID-numbers are appointed. From these 521 only 150 people survived the war. The remaining 1,031 people disappeared in the Holocaust. Based on a telegram dated April 29, 1943 from Reichssicherheitshauptamt to E. Ehlers, SS-Obersturmbannführer and Chief of the Belgian Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo-SD), historians assume that at the time of the arrival of the twentieth convoy in Auschwitz some problems existed. The rumours of the Endlösung created some revolt against the Germans.
[edit] Aftermath
The twentieth convoy was an exceptionally large convoy and was the first transport to use freight carriers with doors fenced with barbed-wire. The previous transports used 3rd class wagons on which it was easy to escape through the windows. After the twentieth convoy, each convoy was reinforced with a German reserve company (based in Brussels) until it reached the German border. In remembrance of the action of the resistance, a statue was inaugurated in 1993 near the train station of Boortmeerbeek. It remembers the Holocaust and the transport of 25,257 Jews, (of which 5,093 children) and 352 Roma-gypsies over the railway track Mechelen-Leuven to the concentration camps. Only 1,205 persons returned home alive.
