Youra Livchitz

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Youra Livchitz (before 1943)

Youra Livchitz (born September 30, 1917 in Kiev , Russian Empire ; died February 17, 1944 in Schaarbeek / Brussels , Belgium ) was a Belgian resistance fighter . He led the attack on the 20th deportation train to Auschwitz and was executed by the German occupiers.

Life

Origin and youth

The parents of Youra Livchitz, Rachel Mitschnik and Schlema Livchitz from Bessarabia , who emigrated in 1910 from Kishinev to Munich , where in 1911 Youra's elder brother Alexandre was born and his father in 1913 completed his medical studies. After the outbreak of World War I , the family moved to Kiev, where Youra was born in 1917. In 1928 the parents divorced.

Youra's mother studied for a year at the Sorbonne in Paris and then moved with her two sons to Brussels , where she became a member of the Theosophical Society and was involved in intellectual and artistic circles, which Youra also joined. After attending school at the Athenaeum in Uccle , Youra began studying medicine at the Free University of Brussels in 1935 . Here he led with his school friend Robert Leclercq (1917-1970) the free-thinking student association Cercle du Libre Examen and joined the theater troupe and the university's basketball club. For a living he worked as a representative for the Belgian pharmaceutical company Pharmacobel.

Second World War

The lantern and pistol used on April 19, 1943 are on display in the Dossin barracks in Mechelen .

During his medical studies, Livchitz made friends with Jean Franklemon, who in 1942 founded the Groupe G ("Groupe général de sabotage de Belgique", general sabotage group of Belgium), which was active in the nationwide resistance against National Socialism . In 1940 Livchitz became an assistant doctor in a Brussels university hospital and completed his medical degree in 1941. In November 1941 the Free University decided of its own accord to close its doors in order not to have to cooperate with the German occupiers. In 1942 they banned Jewish doctors from practicing their profession.

With his brother and mother, Livchitz rented a studio in Brussels, in which the painters Marcel Hastir , René Magritte and Paul Delvaux as well as the physicist Ilya Prigogine were also rented. After the closure of the theosophical library by the German occupiers, the “Les Ateliers” studio became an important conspiratorial meeting place where leaflets were produced. In the underground, Livchitz, who spoke Russian, French, German and English, took on the battle name Georges . He got in touch with the British secret service and translated programs for the BBC for Radio Moscow . In advertisements he was put out to be wanted as a “communist terrorist”.

He tried to get support for his planned attack on a deportation train, but the Belgian partisan army denied him support. Then he stopped on his own responsibility, together with his friends Jean Frank Lemon and Robert Maistriau , with a 6.35 mm Browning equipped and a lantern in Boortmeerbeek the 20th deportation train to Auschwitz that 1,618 Jews from the Mechelen transit camp to Auschwitz-Birkenau transport should. This happened on April 19, 1943, when the uprising happened in the Warsaw Ghetto . After his return, Livchitz planned to flee to England via France. However, he was betrayed, arrested by the Gestapo on June 26, 1943 together with his brother in the premises of the pharmaceutical company and imprisoned at Fort Breendonk . From here he wrote a suicide note to his mother asking his friends in prison for forgiveness. On the Tir National ( "National Shooting Range") in Schaarbeek Alexandre Livchitz were on 10 February 1944, and Youra February 17 shot .

The Jewish Museum in Brussels is showing a documentary about Youra Livchitz.

literature

  • Marion Schreiber : Silent rebels. The attack on the 20th deportation train to Auschwitz. Foreword by Paul Spiegel . Aufbau-Taschenbuch-Verlag 2002. ISBN 3-7466-8067-0 .
  • Pedro Páramo: The Twentieth Train. Foreword by Paul Spiegel. Grove Press, 1978.

Web links

Commons : Youra Livchitz  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pedro Páramo: The Twentieth Train , p. 247
  2. ↑ Youra Livchitz, Heros Juif de la résistance Belge pendant la seconde Guerre Mondiale
personal data
SURNAME Livchitz, Youra
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiev
DATE OF DEATH February 17, 1944
Place of death Schaarbeek , Brussels , Belgium