Dr. Jim Denison described his visit to the Dallas Holocaust Museum in his Feb. 2, 2018, Daily Commentary.
He told of an incredible story that was featured in the museum at the time. He was so moved by it he bought Marion Schreiber’s, The Twentieth Train, in the museum’s bookstore. Here is a condensed version of the story. A train left the Mechelen transit camp in Belgium on April 19, 1943, bound for the Auschwitz death camp. It was the twentieth time this train was making this trip. On this trip alone it was transporting more than 1,600 Jews to certain execution.
Three men committed themselves to stopping the train and freeing as many prisoners as they could. Their leader, a Jewish doctor named Youra Livchitz, was a brilliant young man who could speak Latin, Greek, German, and French. He was a writer, and an actor who had the ability to inspire those around him. Until the Nazi occupation his options for the future had seemed almost unlimited. Perhaps this is what motivated the young genius to recruit two non-Jewish friends, Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon, to help him that night.
Armed with only a lantern, a pistol, some red tissue paper and two sets of pliers, the three devised a plan to stop the train. They created a makeshift stop signal and when the train ground to a stop, Livchitz fired his pistol to attract the attention of the Nazi guards as Maistriau and Franklemon ran to the railroad cars and began prying open the doors with their pliers.