Simon Gronowski: a remarkable story of courage, friendship and humanity
Among those awarded medals of honour by Flanders to mark the region’s holiday this year were two remarkable men: Simon Gronowski and Koenraad Tinel. Their unlikely friendship – one man a Holocaust survivor, the other the son of a Nazi family – has its roots in an audacious moment in 1943, when Belgian Resistance fighters intercepted a train heading for Auschwitz. 11-year-old Simon was among the prisoners who escaped that night.
Simon Gronowski was born in 1931 in Uccle. In March 1943, he and his Lithuanian mother, Chana, and older sister, Ita, were arrested by the Gestapo and taken to the Dossin transit camp in Mechelen. A month later, Simon and Chana were loaded onto a cattle wagon on a train bound for Auschwitz.
That train, known as the 20th convoy, was carrying around 1,600 Jewish men, women and children. As it passed through Flemish Brabant, it was halted by three members of the Belgian Resistance, armed only with a pistol, wire cutters and a lantern covered in red paper.
The three men were Jewish doctor Youra Livchitz and his friends Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon. After tricking the driver into stopping the train, they managed to open one wagon, freeing 17 people.
Emboldened, men in Simon's wagon forced open the doors and began to jump out too. A total of 233 people jumped from the train that night. 89 were recaptured, 26 were killed by the fall or shot dead by guards and 118 escaped.
The hijack was the only successful attack on a Jewish deportation train in Europe.
Pushed by his mother
Among those who escaped that night was 11-year-old Simon, pushed from the train by his mother. Calling on the survival skills he'd learned as a Scout, and aided by strangers, the boy made his way back to Brussels.
He spent the next 18 months being sheltered by Belgian families before he was reunited with his father, Polish-born Léon, who had been in hospital at the time of his family's arrest and had since been in hiding.
Unable to jump from the train herself, Chana continued to Auschwitz where she was killed. Ita was transported and killed shortly after, aged 18, the family later learned. Belgium was liberated in September 1944 and Léon died the following year in despair, leaving 14-year-old Simon alone in the world.
"The first heroine is my mother," Gronowski told The Low Countries podcast in an interview published in 2024. "She put her little boy on the step of the wagon, the step for freedom and life, and continued her journey to death in Auschwitz."
Gronowski went on to become a lawyer and, like his sister, a pianist. He remains grateful to those who kept him safe until the end of the war.
"The Catholic families who hid me for 17 months until the liberation of Belgium on September 3, 1944, and saved me, they are heroes," he told The Low Countries. "Many Belgians, often of modest means, came to the aid of the persecuted, following only their hearts"
Deep bond
Having rarely talked of the events in the intervening 60 years, Gronowski published his first book in 2002. He has since spoken widely of his experiences and of the dangers of hatred and extremism. Last year, he accompanied a group of Belgian pupils on an educational visit to Auschwitz.
Sculptor Koenraad Tinel, raised in a family of Nazi collaborators in Ghent, came across the story and was deeply moved.
“I can tell you – Koenraad is more than a friend, he’s my brother”
“I read his story in the newspaper, that a Jewish boy was thrown out of a train to Auschwitz-Birkenau by his mother to save his life," Tinel said after being awarded Flanders’ medal of honour alongisde Gronowski on 11 July. "I come from a Nazi family. I was raised to hate Jews. And when I read that, I cried.”
The two were later introduced at a lecture organised by the Union of Progressive Jews of Belgium and a deep bond developed.
Finally liberated
“I met Simon and we became best friends," Tinel says. "I told him, ‘Sir, I’m hurt by what happened to you’, and he told me, ‘The children of the Nazis are not guilty’.”
The two have since written a book: Eindelijk bevrijd, or Finally Liberated, described by the publisher as “a heartfelt plea for humanity”. Together, they have given talks on forgiveness, hope and peace and in 2020 they received an honorary doctorate for their work from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Now in their 90s, the two men share a deep bond. Gronowski: “I can tell you – Koenraad is more than a friend, he’s my brother.”
Youra Livchitz was executed by firing squad in Brussels in February 1944, aged 26. A memorial to the 20th convoy escape was created near Boortmeerbeek in 1933, and the pistol, lantern and red paper used that night are displayed at the Kazerne Dossin Holocaust Memorial centre, on the site of the former transit camp.
#FlandersNewsService | Simon Gronowski and Koenraad Tinel receive a medal of honour on Flemish Community Day, 11 July 2025 © BELGA PHOTO JAMES ARTHUR GEKIERE
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