Belgium bids farewell to resistance hero who saved Jews

[Behind the Aegis]

Source: DPA

Belgium paid its final respects Wednesday to the last survivor of a resistance team that in 1943 rescued over 200 Jews from a train to Auschwitz with no more than a pistol, three pairs of wire cutters, a lantern and a red rag.

Robert Maistriau, who died on Friday aged 87, was 22 when he and two friends hijacked a train deporting over 1,600 Jews from Belgium to the Nazi death camp Auschwitz.

On the night of April 19, 1943, the trio  Maistriau, Youra Livchitz (25) and Jean Franklemon (25) bicycled from their Brussels homes some 40 kilometers to Boortmeerbeek in Flanders.

There they wrapped their lantern in a red rag and laid it on the eastbound railway track as an impromptu stop sign. Lying in the darkness, they watched as the train ground to a halt.

Maistriau then crept out and ran to the train, forcing a carriage door open with his wire cutters.


Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1025617.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[14thColony]

2. This is quite a sobering reality check

When people throw around terms like 'courage,' 'patriotism,' 'sacrifice,' and 'freedom' they should be reminded that without actions, those are nothing but words. These three men, not soldiers but average people, put their lives in jeopardy to do what was right. Courage isn't doing what everyone else is doing. Courage is the fortitude to do what's right even when it could very well get you killed. Few people held up as 'heroes' today would deserve to be mentioned in the same breath with men such as these.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Excellent post!

Not only are your words true, they are a reminder of what really is heroic. These heroes aren't just from the Holocaust, but from all time periods when ordinary people took a stand to insanity and hate and said "NO MORE!"

[Berry Cool]

5. Indeed.

Mr. Maistriau was a hero in the true sense of the word.

May he rest in peace.

[14thColony]

6. What I find heartening

about the horrific episode of the Holocaust, is that the most unlikely people were often the ones who took the stand. I'm sure you're familiar with Israel's roll of "Righteous Among Nations." It includes some amazing stories, like Lt. Albert Battel, a German officer and Nazi member who, when he learned the SS were on the way to "relocate" a Jewish village under his control in Poland, ordered his unit to block the road and open fire if the SS tried to force their way past. His soldiers obeyed and turned the SS back, saving the village. Or the Iranian consul general in Paris who almost got shot for forcing his way onto deportation trains to 'confiscate' Iranian Jews from the Germans (he was also busy handing out blank Iranian passports to French Jews, then immediately declaring that they were really Iranian Jews under his diplomatic protection).

When you read some of these stories, one is left with the lingering question "why did they do it when they had a legitimate excuse to do nothing?" The only reasonable answer is that for those who are true to their beliefs, humanity knows no political or religious boundaries, and their own life becomes expendable if necessary. Right is just right. And that's what gives me some hope for the human race.

[LeftishBrit]

9. Great post. It's always important to remember the heroes and the truly good people...

even if they sometimes seem hopelessly outnumbered by the evil people (or at least the evil are those who get the power).

[searchingforlight]

4. Your response saved this post for me

I was beginning to wonder why the mods had let it stay and certainly why it was on the front page. You took the subject back to the real issue. Good job.

[edwardian]

12. Fantasy.

[Kolesar]

7. We who organized against the Iraq War were courageous

We didn't risk death or torture. However the Congress members who spoke out risked having their careers ended and their reputations tarnished.

[roguevalley]

13. given nazi retribution to the entire family of people caught, they were

awesome. Righteous gentiles who showed the rest of us how to live.

[Ohio Joe]

8. wow, amazing bravery. RIP - nt

[LeftishBrit]

10. He and his friends were real heroes

is it known what happened to the people whom they helped escape? I hope they all survived to the end of the war!

[xxqqqzme]

11. Amazing! Thanx for posting

"...It was the only time in occupied Europe that resistance fighters liberated a deportation train.

Livchitz was shot by the Nazis in 1943. Maistriau was arrested in March 1944 and deported to Bergen-Belsen, from which he was liberated in April 1945. Franklemon died in 1977..."

[struggle4progress]

14. A few good friends, some stuff from the basement, brains and courage