Twentieth train convoy

A pistol, a storm lamp, and some red paper. With this meager material, three young Brussels resistance fighters attacked a train on the Mechelen – Leuven railway line in Boortmeerbeek on April 19, 1943. This train, the so-called XXth Transport, carried 1,638 Jewish civilians to Auschwitz. Ultimately, 231 prisoners managed to escape. Of those, 90 deportees were recaptured and placed on a subsequent transport; 26 individuals were killed during their flight, and 115 deportees succeeded in their escape. The attack is a significant event in the history of the Holocaust. It is, after all, the only place in Europe where a liberation action was carried out on a Jewish transport during World War II.

To commemorate this event, a memorial plaque was unveiled at the Boortmeerbeek station in 1993. In 2005, this plaque was supplemented with a real monument.

The Ghent sculptor Etienne Desmet designed a simple column of corten steel. The three hands on the column are a symbol of resistance, but also of hope and solidarity. The monument aims not only to remember an act of resistance but also to serve as an indictment against all genocides in the world.

Blauwkruikje