We got out... and we survived. Shocking confession of a deported

who escaped from the death train

Simon Gronowski, the son of a Belgian jew comunities' family, didn't get to know Auschwitz,

because, in the spring of 1943, he was one of the hundred deported person who managed to

escape from "the train of death", before it could get them to the concentration camp, Auschwitz.

He was only 11 years old when, on March 17, 1943, the Nazis seized and threw him in one of Gestapo's

cellars in Bruxelles, then in the Dossin barack from Maniles, the next move being his deporting to

Auschwitz.

"A month later, on April 19, 1943," says Simon Gronowski, "they put me in a cattle car, bound for

Auschwitz." The boy managed to jump from the train that was traveling at full speed, together with

another 12 deported Belgians.

His mother and his sister did not have time to do the same, says Der Spiegel, quoted by Slate.

"It took me 60 years," says Gronowski, "to tell the drama of my childhood in the book 'Simon, L'efant

du 20e convoi' (Simon, the kid from the 20th convoy -Ed.)" signed by Francois Pirrat and Simon

Gronowski, published in 2013.

Following the storyline, Simon recall, "The train stopped and the guards were yelling and shooting in

our direction. My mother couldn't jump, she was to weak. My first thought was to run to her. But,

acting from an unconscious reflex, I slipped to the left and ran as fast as I could. I walked continuously

the whole night through the woods.

Numerous escapes forced Nazis to use rather wagons designed for cattles and goods than those

designed for passenger, with windows.

During each stop in stations, wagons were being carefully inspected from the outside, to prevent any

attempt of sabotage. In case of an escape, the guards had orders to shoot immediately.

Inside the "train of death", deported people often faced doubt. Many hebrew people prevented others to

escape because they "considered escaping an irresponsible act, preferring rather to work than risk their

lives," says the author.

Simon Gronowski was lucky to meet a Belgian policeman, who boarded him on a train bound for

Bruxelles, so that he could return to his father.

Now, at the age of 80, lawyer Gronowski is the president of Hebrew Deportees from Belgium.

Him testimony appears in a study of the historian Tanja Fransecky, which was published On March 24,

in German, as the first documentary about the escapes from the death trains.

"The running has produced a great dilemma for many of us because we were leaving our relatives

behind. Therefore, many survivors have been silent for decades after the war about this fact," says

Gronowski.

He himself have been silent for almost 60 years. His mother and sister died in the gas chambers from

Auschwitz, and his father died shortly after the war, in 1945.

Gronowski wanted to go on, to become a lawyed. He played piano, was passionated about jazz and

didn't want to talk about war.

Recently, he fullfiled an old dream of his – he played piano with Woody Allen and his jazz band. The

latter, after reading his story, invited him to New York and wished to see it (his story) published in an

article devoted to Holocaust survivors in a Wall Street Journal.