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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940
EAN num: 9780802141859
ISBN number: 0802141854
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: February 11, 2005
Publishing house: Grove Press
Sale Popularity Level: 864642
Studio: Grove Press
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One day in April 1943, a young doctor and Jewish resistance fighter Youra Livchitz discovered the departure date of the subsequent transport train to Auschwitz. With only one weekend in which to organize a raid, Youra recruited two school friends, Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau, to pull off one of the most daring rescues of the entire war. Equipped with only three pairs of pliers, a hurricane lamp covered in blue paper, and a single pistol, the men ambushed the train, which was transporting 1,618 Jews to Auschwitz. Marion Schreiber's gripping book about the only Nazi death train in World War II to be ambushed draws on private documents, photographs, archive material, and police reports as well as original research, including interviews with the surviving escapees. Like Schindler's List, The Twentieth Train creates a vivid, moving portrait of heroism under impossible circumstances.
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Rated by buyers 
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There were many heroic acts of resistance to the German occupation in World War II, and naturally some were more significant than others. Unfortunately, there were people who were more interested in personal advancement than anything else, which made any act of resistance one containing a degree of personal risk.
While the title emphasizes one particular instance, an armed attack of a train transporting Jews to the camps by partisans, the book is really more about a resistance movement. Belgium was unlucky to have been invaded and occupied by German forces in both world wars. Therefore, when it occurred for the second time in 1940, the population understood what would happen.
The Belgian people engaged in passive acts of resistance whenever it was realistically possible and did a great deal to shelter their Jewish residents. Many Belgians risked a great deal, even their lives, to protect Jews from being captured and sent to the death camps. That, more than one single attack on a train, is the message that should be taken from this book.
Rated by buyers 
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It may not be possible for someone who is not fluent in German to review THE TWENTIETH TRAIN, for what we have here is an English translation of the original, and the book gives no information as to the education, experience, or other qualifications of the translator. A disturbing number of passages exhibit the use of pejorative adjectives to describe both policies and people associated with the Nazi presence in Belgium during the second world war. At times, policies are described as "stupid" and people as "sadistic thugs." As any college freshman would be admonished, this is indicative of lazy and unimaginative writing. Rather than painting a clear word picture of the situation and allowing the reader to draw his own conclusion about the quality of the people involved, the writer merely uses insulting adjectives and doesn't appear to care whether or not a reader agrees or, worse yet, makes an unfounded assumption that readers will all agree with his assessment. This is the sort of inferior technique, if indeed we can even give it the status of a "technique," that one expects to see in newspaper "letters to the editor," not in a published, non-fiction history. However, there is no way for me to ascertain whether the lack of authorial skill is a weakness in the author, Marion Schreiber, or in the translator, Shaun Whiteside.
The title, too, is somewhat misleading and, again, the problem lies in the English translation. In actuality, the ambush of the prisoner transport train is almost a minor occurrence in the book and occurs well toward its end. Most of the book is concerned with portraying the growing level of control exerted by the Nazi occupational government in Belgium, the increasing danger to the Jewish population, and the evolving reaction of the people, ranging from attempts to hide, to collaboration, and to armed resistance. The train ambush, while highly symbolic (either of bravery or of desperate bravado), was truly a minor, probably almost insignificant, action in terms of the overall war effort. This is not to say that it was not worthy of a book but rather that it is actually a rather minor part of the book itself.
In essence, therefore, to ballyhoo the ambush in both the book title and on the dust jacket illustration, is to give it an emphasis that is not carried through in the book. Dare I call it deceptive marketing? At any rate, the deception, if we can use so strong a term, is definitely attributable to the English-language publishers, not to the author. Schreiber originally gave her German-language book a much more accurate title, "Stille Rebellen," or "Silent Rebels."
Schreiber's contribution to the historical literature of Nazism is, I believe, valuable. It leaves the reader with a better understanding of the impact of the Nazi occupation on the civilian population of Belgium. It also speaks to the diversity of human nature in its reaction to a threatening situation. Some ran and hid, some cooperated and rationalized away their doubts, some profited financially, and a few resisted.
Of especial interest to me was the reaction of many of the Jewish people even after they were incarcerated and awaiting deportation to Auschwitz. Despite rumors wafting back from the East, they simply refused to believe that they were to be transported to their deaths and clung stubbornly to the explanation that they were indeed going to labor in the fields and factories of Germany to support the war effort, a hard life but certainly a survivable one. Their inability--or was it their refusal?--to see reality and their willingness to submit en masse to the directions of the Nazi police, even to the point of refusing to endeavor an escape from the transport train when the opportunity arose, was one of the most revealing facts of the entire book. This acquiescence and self-delusion, of course, is in no way uniquely indicative of Belgian or "stateless" Jews of the 1940s; one sees it throughout all of human society today, particularly in political and military arenas.
I feel that Schreiber has written an important book in that it not only adds to our knowledge of history but that it also is a commentary and, if one will see it, a warning to contemporary societies as to the fragility of perceived safety and security and of the dangers of political naivete. It is a shame that the English translation comes across as uninspired and even more so that publishers have misrepresented the scope of the book by inventing a more titillating title for marketing purposes. For the significance of its content, I would surely rate THE TWENTIETH TRAIN with four or even five Amazon stars. The three-star rating I finally decided upon reflects the shortcomings of the English translation and use of a deceptive title. Nonetheless, the book is certainly worth one's time to read and especially to think about.
Rated by buyers -
A fascinating story of University students who were inspired to create the circle of friends and then others to resist against the Nazi oppression in Brussels and Belgium during the Second World War. It was filled with facts of the bravery of so many. The genesis of the students from the Free University of Brussels having joined before the war into the group, Le Cercle du Libre Examen, were able to save numerous Jews and others from the Holocaust. Well worth the reading.
Rated by buyers -
Reading this book renews your faith in mankind. In this book there are many stories of people who resisted the Nazis and the thugs and gangsters who supported and collaberated with the Nazis.
The book details the methods use to steal the property of the Jews before they were shipped to their death. How the Nazis lied and convinced most of the deportees that they were being transported to a workers paridise. It also shows how people cooperated with the Germans or paid or used influence to have their names removed from the list of Jewish deportees only to betrayed at the end.
The book tells in detail how famlies were arrested and taken to a temporary holding camp waiting until a full train load of people had been collected and then sent to the death camps.
Then, a group of young people each decide to do something to save lives. With no support from the allies or the underground they faced the Germans face to face and won.
Their story of individual courage is fasinating. It clearly shows that there were many, many more courageous people in Belguim than there were Nazi collaberators.
I loved this book. My copy of the book has been passed to at least 10 people so far. All the reactions have been the same; wonderful admiration of the courageous young heros.
Rated by buyers -
The Twentieth Train: The True Story of the Ambush of the Death Train to Auschwitz by Marion Schreiber is a true account of rescue in Belgium. After the Nazi invasion of Belgium in May of 1940, a camp was set up in Malines (or Mechelen in Flemish) for captured Jews. Their ultimate destination was Auschwitz, but a minimum quota of prisoners was required to fill a convoy, hence Malines, the collecting area. Tragically, there would be twenty-eight Belgian convoys to Auschwitz before the end of the war, but Marion Schreiber tells the little-known story of the ambush of the twentieth convoy. Executed entirely by three young men independent of the Belgian Resistance movement, the operation managed to free over 240 Jewish prisoners before the train reached Auschwitz. Of the rescuers, however, only one survived capture and death.
Encompassing more than just the rescue operation, The Twentieth Train explores pre-war Belgium thorougly in much of the book. I enjoyed learning about this country's history as well as its amazing story of courage and rescue in World War II.
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