Youra Georges Livchitz
Youra Georges Livchitz
On April 19, 1943, Youra Georges Livchitz, a young Jewish doctor, and two comrades in his Belgian resistance group, Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau, set out for an operation of their very own: to halt a deportation train and attempt to release the Jews trapped within it. It was the twentieth transport from the Mechelen transit camp to Auschwitz-Birkenau, with 1,631 Jews aboard. Youra stopped the train and threatened the engineer with his handgun. Maistriau opened the doors of one of the cars, and seventeen Jews escaped, even as the German guards fired. It was the only attack on a deportation train during the war. In 1944, the three underground members were arrested. Jean and Robert survived the camps; Youra was tried and executed in February 1944, in Breendonk, Belgium.
