In 1943, born in Kyiv Youra Livchitz saved 116 Belgian Jews
When the train driver saw the red light of the lantern ahead, he slowed down. As soon as the train stopped, gunshots were heard from everywhere. While the guards were trying to figure out what to do, the attackers managed to open two railway wagons, and gave over tools to the other wagons for the people inside to be able to free themselves.
On a Belgian spring night, dozens of people rushed out of the train transporting Jews from a transit camp near Antwerp to Auschwitz. When the guards came to their senses, 232 Jews had managed to escape. Some were killed, many were brought back. However, more than 100 people managed to escape.
Except for the attackers themselves. To the surprise of the guards, the sabotage was organized by only three people, and they had only one handgun, which paralyzed the whole train.
Dr. Youra Livchitz fired it non-stop, running along the train and giving the impression of a mass raid. That’s how they call him in Belgium — Youra. Born in Kyiv in 1917, he later moved to Europe with his mother and brother.
One of the attackers, Jean Franklemon, was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he lived to see the liberation in 1945. The second attacker, Robert Maistriau, spent a year in six concentration camps, but also survived.
Youra Livchitz managed to escape from the Gestapo. However, in June 1943 he was arrested together with his brother. In February 1944 they were both executed. Youra Livchitz was 27.
The attack on the 20th transport train with Belgian Jews took place 81 years ago on the night of the 27th day of the month of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar. On the same day the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began.
Today, on the Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day, Nisan 27, six million victims of the Holocaust are commemorated in Israel and around the world. Thanks to Youra Livchitz from Kyiv, 116 Jews are not among them.
