Three commemorative plaques for Holocaust resistance
On Friday 27 January 2023, in the context of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the City of Brussels inaugurated 3 memorial plaques at the Bois de la Cambre. These plaques honour 3 young resistance fighters during the Holocaust: Youra Livschitz, Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau.
On 19 April 1943, an extraordinary act of resistance took place in Belgium. The 3 young resistance fighters Youra Livschitz, Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau forced the train of the 20th convoy, transporting 1,631 Jews from the Dossin Barracks in Mechelen to Auschwitz, to stop, close to Boortmeerbeek. They arranged for the release of 17 women and men from a wagon.
Others fled further along the route. A total of 236 people fled: 26 were killed, 90 were recaptured, but 120 fled to freedom. Youra Livschitz, who himself had decided to make this project a success, could count on the help of Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau, whom he had met in school at the Uccle Athenaeum and then on the ULB campus.
Youra was arrested and shot at the National Shooting Range on 17 February 1944. He was 26 years old.
AGENDA
