Real heroes don’t wear capes. Sometimes it might seem like a few people are too insignificant to make a difference, but they can completely changes the lives of others. These three men did just that in their daring endeavor during World War II.
As Jewish people from all over Europe were taken away to concentration camps, one man watched in horror and decided that he would do something about it. Unable to sit idly by and watch his people be tormented, Youra Livchitz devised a plan.
Youra had been born in Russia, and the Jewish man eventually became a doctor. When the war broke out, he wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but he knew it had to be stopped. This man was prepared to risk his life in order to help his fellow community members.
He reached out to two of his non Jewish friends from school: Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau. The three took the weekend to plot; they were determined to stop the atrocities that were happening all around them.
On April 19, 1943, the men took action. They ambushed a train that was carrying 1,631 Jewish people from Belgium to a death camp at Auschwitz. These three only had with them pliers, a hurricane lamp wrapped in red paper, and a pistol, but they did their best to free the people trapped on the train.
They set up the light on the tracks, as if it were a signal. Sure enough, the train came to a halt, and the men sprung into action.
“I can still remember the noise of the breaks,” Robert told The Guardian. The boys shot off the pistol so that the guards would be deterred, then they set about prying the doors open to let the prisoners out.
Some prisoners had heard about the plan before it happened, so they sawed through some of the bars on the train’s windows before it was stopped. Because of this, they were able to jump out the instant the train had come to a halt.
These boys freed 17 prisoners, and because of their exploit 200 more people who were further down found freedom. Unfortunately, many of the passengers remained stuck on the train.
This brave adventure was quite an accomplishment, but it did not stop there. Youra went on to free many more Jewish people before he was betrayed and executed.
Jean was sent to a concentration camp, but Robert survived. His story was told by Marion Schreiber in “The Twentieth Train: The True Story of the Ambush of the Death Train to Auschwitz.”
These three men were certainly brave, and their heroic actions will be remembered for many years to come.
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