‘My mother sacrificed herself for me’: Escape from the train of death
It was almost spring, when the Gestapo came for them.
The Gronowskis had planned to escape through the back garden if the worst happened. But they were taken by surprise, sitting at the breakfast table sipping coffee and spreading jam on bread, when the doorbell rang.
“The door opened and two men shouted ‘Gestapo. Papers’,” recalls Simon, who was aged just 11. As the Nazis entered their small flat, his mother, Chana, and older sister, Ita, turned pale and started trembling. After examining Chana’s ID card and passport, he confirmed her fears.
“You have been denounced,” he said, curtly.
It was March 1943, almost three years into the Nazi occupation of Belgium. As Jews, the Gronowskis had left their home six months earlier and gone into hiding in a different part of their home city of Brussels. But the Nazi’s secret police had tracked them down.
Simon Gronowski as a baby with his mother, Chana, and sister, Ita
Just a child at the time, Simon had no clue his family were to be deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau – the notorious death camp where the Third Reich carried out mass murder with brutal efficiency.
As the soldiers shouted at them to pack their bags, Simon grabbed his beloved scout uniform and followed his family into the unknown. Pointing at her young son, Chana asked: “The little one too?”.
“Yes,” they replied. “The little one too.”
After their arrest in Belgium, they were held in a former army barracks in the neighbouring city of Mechelen. This was was Belgium’s only transit camp, a holding place for Jews and Romani before their deportation to the extermination camps.
The living conditions were wretched. A hundred men, women and children were crammed together in each room, forced to sleep on hay mattresses on rickety wooden bunks. Nobody knew what fate awaited them. The word “Auschwitz” was never mentioned, says Simon. “The Nazis told us that Jews must go away to work, in labour camps.”
Simon had no clue his family were to be deported to Auschwitz
A month later, Simon and his mother were informed by the SS that they would be leaving the next day by train. Ita, briefly protected by the Belgian citizenship she had proudly claimed on her 16th birthday, wasn’t on the list that day.
The next day, Simon and Chana were loaded on to one of 34 train wagons alongside 1,600 other prisoners. Nobody knew their final destination, they all thought they were going to work.
When the 11-year-old was escorted out of the barracks, he found himself standing “between two rows of soldiers all carrying rifles, leading right up to a train wagon which seemed enormous, as I was very small. I climbed in with my mother and 50 other people”.
Inside the wagon, there was straw on the floor, no seats and barely any light inside. “I was still in my little world of cub scouts,” says Simon. “I didn’t know that I had been condemned to death and that this train was going to transport me to the place of my execution.”
‘She sacrificed herself to ensure my escape’: Simon Gronowski with his mother, who died at Auschwitz
But this was one of the convoys which sent more than 25,000 Jews from Belgium to the death camps between 1942 and 1944.
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During the journey, the train came under attack from the Belgian Resistance. Three young fighters halted the train and managed to help people escape. Cowering in their carriage, Simon and his mother held their breath.
Once the train started moving again, the door of their carriage, possibly damaged in the raid, slid open. As others leapt down, his mother told him to follow.
Jumping down, Simon heard soldiers running in his direction, firing guns and shouting. When he dared to look back, he saw that soldiers had caught his mother before she could jump.
“I jumped from the train to obey my mother. If she had told me to stay then I’d have never left her side and I would have died with her in the gas chamber,” says Simon. “I adored my mother. She sacrificed herself to ensure my escape.”
Simon Gronowski today
Terrified, Simon ran for his life. He spent the night in the woods before a local Belgian family gave him refuge. Eventually he was reunited with his father, Leon, who was in hospital at the time of their arrest having suffered a breakdown. On his release, he was sheltered by friends.
Three days later, Chana was dead. Murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, the camp where the Third Reich perfected its methods of mass murder.
Prisoners being brought to Auschwitz in 1945, with the crematory chimneys labelled I and II in the distance. Pic: AP
By the end of the Nazis’ four and half years in control of the camp, they had killed more than a million people – the majority of whom were Jews.
Six months later, Simon’s sister, Ita, also lost her life at Auschwitz.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, now a museum and memorial, was liberated on 27 January 1945. Pic: AP
On Monday, around 50 survivors will join an array of international dignitaries including King Charles, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Polish President Andrzej Duda to remember the day Soviet soldiers liberated the camp 80 years ago.
In total, an estimated 6 million lost their lives in the Holocaust, one of the greatest crimes in history. Today, Simon is concerned by what he sees as rising antisemitism and the growing popularity of far-right parties and populism in the US and Europe.
“I fight against the extreme right and antisemitism, because I was a victim of it. The extreme right is a pathway to hatred,” he says.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum’s exhibits include thousands of shoes taken from people held and killed at the concentration camp
America, the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands are just some of the countries which reported a rise in antisemitic incidents in the year following the October 7 2023 attack.
A “disregard or disrespect for democracy” is fuelling the popularity of “antisemitism, racism and other forms of hostilities” in Europe, says Professor Stefanie Schuler-Springorum from the Centre for Research on Antisemitism in Berlin.
“We have to be on the alert,” she warns.
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Auschwitz survivors pessimistic
The 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation will be for some the final time they attend a major anniversary event and bear witness to the crimes committed.
It’s for this reason, Simon wants to share his memories of the horror he witnessed.
“My mother gave me life twice. When I was born, and the day of my escape,” he says. “I want young people to know about the cruelty of yesterday, to help defend our democracy today.”
Siobhan Robbins reports from Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland with Sophie Garratt, Europe news editor, and Serena Kutchinsky, assistant editor for premium content
They rose to their feet in ecstatic surprise, shouting “heydar, heydar” – a Shia victory chant.
This was the first public appearance of their supreme leader since Israel began attacking their country.
He emerged during evening prayers in his private compound. He said nothing but looked stern and resolute as he waved to the crowd.
He has spent the last weeks sequestered in a bunker, it is assumed, for his safety following numerous death threats from Israel and the US.
His re-emergence suggests a return to normality and a sense of defiance that we have witnessed here on the streets of Tehran too.
Earlier, we had filmed as men in black marched through the streets of the capital to the sound of mournful chants and the slow beat of drums, whipping their backs with metal flails.
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Defiance on streets of Tehran
This weekend they mark the Shia festival of Ashura as they have for 14 centuries. But this year has poignant significance for Iranians far more than most.
The devout remember the betrayal and death of Imam Hussein as if it happened yesterday. We filmed men and women weeping as they worshipped at the Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine in northern Tehran.
The armies of the Caliph Yazid killed the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh-century Battle of Karbala.
Shiite Muslims mark the anniversary every year and reflect on the virtue it celebrates, of resistance against oppression and injustice.
But more so than ever in the wake of Israel and America’s attacks on their country.
The story is one of prevailing over adversity and deception. A sense of betrayal is keenly felt here among people and officials.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Many Iranians believe they were lured into pursuing diplomacy as part of a ruse by the US.
Iran believed it was making diplomatic progress in talks with America it hoped could lead to a deal. Then Israel launched its attacks and, instead of condemning them, the US joined in.
Death to Israel chants resounded outside the mosque in skies which were filled for 12 days with the sounds of Israeli jets. There is a renewed sense of defiance here.
One man told us: “The lesson to be learned from Hussein is not to give in to oppression even if it is the most powerful force in the world.”
A woman was dismissive about the US president. “I don’t think about Trump, nobody likes him. He always wants to attack too many countries.”
Pictures on billboards nearby draw a line between Imam Hussein’s story and current events. The seventh-century imam on horseback alongside images of modern missiles and drones from the present day.
Other huge signs remember the dead. Iran says almost 1,000 people were killed in the strikes, many of them women and children.
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Officially Iran is projecting defiance but not closing the door to diplomacy.
Government spokeswoman Dr Fatemeh Mohajerani told Sky News that Israel should not even think about attacking again.
“We are very strong in defence and as state officials have announced, this time Israel will receive an even stronger response compared to previous times,” she said.
“We hope that Israel will not make such a mistake.”
But there is also a hint of conciliation: Senior Iranian officials have told Sky News that back-channel efforts are under way to explore new talks with the US.
Israel had hoped its attacks could topple the Iranian leadership. That proved unfounded, the government is in control here.
For many Iranians, it seems quite the opposite happened – the 12-day war has brought them closer together.
To the sound of mournful chants and the slow beat of drums, they march, whipping their backs with metal flails.
It is an ancient ceremony going back almost 14 centuries – the Shia commemoration of Ashura.
But this year in particular has poignant significance for Iranians.
The devout remember the betrayal and death of the Imam Hussein as if it happened yesterday.
Iranians gather ahead of Ashura
We filmed men and women weep as they worshipped at the Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine in northern Tehran.
The grandson of the Prophet Muhammad was killed by the armies of the Caliph Yazid in the seventh century Battle of Karbala.
Shia Muslims mark the anniversary every year and reflect on the virtue it celebrates – of resistance against oppression and injustice. But more so than ever this year, in the wake of Israel and America’s attacks on their country.
The story is one of prevailing over adversity and deception. A sense of betrayal is keenly felt here by people and officials.
Men and women weeped as they worshipped at the Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine
Many Iranians believe they were lured into pursuing diplomacy as part of a ruse by the US.
Iran believed it was making diplomatic progress in talks with America, which it hoped could lead to a deal. Then Israel launched its attacks and, instead of condemning them, the US joined in.
“Death to Israel” chants resounded outside the mosque in skies that for 12 days were filled with the sounds of Israeli jets.
There is a renewed sense of defiance here.
One man told us: “The lesson to be learned from Hussein is not to give in to oppression, even if it is the most powerful force in the world.”
‘I don’t think about Trump. Nobody likes him,’ one woman tells Sky News
A woman was dismissive about the US president.
“I don’t think about Trump. Nobody likes him. He always wants to attack too many countries.”
Pictures on billboards nearby link Imam Hussein’s story and current events. They show the seventh century imam on horseback alongside images of modern missiles and drones from the present day.
Other huge signs remember the dead. Iran says almost 1,000 people were killed in the strikes, many of them women and children.
Officially Iran is projecting defiance, but not closing the door to diplomacy.
Government spokeswoman Dr Fatemeh Mohajerani told Sky News that Israel should not even think about attacking again.
“We are very strong in defence, and as state officials have announced, this time Israel will receive an even stronger response compared to previous times. We hope that Israel will not make such a mistake.”
Dr Fatemeh Mohajerani said it would be a mistake for Israel to attack again
But there is also a hint of conciliation. Senior Iranian officials have told Sky News back-channel efforts are under way to explore new talks with the US.
Israel had hoped its attacks could topple the Iranian leadership. Those hopes proved unfounded. The government is in control here.
For many Iranians it seems quite the opposite happened – the 12-day war has brought them closer together.
World
Two security workers injured after grenades thrown at aid site, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says
Two American security workers in Gaza were injured after grenades were thrown during food distribution in Khan Younis, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has said.
In a statement, the US and Israeli-backed aid group said a targeted terrorist attack was carried out at one of its sites in southern Gaza on Saturday morning.
The two Americans injured “are receiving medical treatment and are in stable condition,” it said, adding that the delivery of aid was “otherwise successful” and that “no local aid workers or civilians were harmed”.
GHF didn’t say exactly when the incident happened but claimed Hamas was behind the attack, adding: “GHF has repeatedly warned of credible threats from Hamas, including explicit plans to target American personnel, Palestinian aid workers, and the civilians who rely on our sites for food.
“Today’s attack tragically affirms those warnings.”
Later, the aid group posted a picture on social media, which it said showed “fragments of a grenade packed with ball bearings” that was used in the attack.
Asked by Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, whether the two injured individuals were responsible for handing out aid or were responsible for providing security, GHF said they were “American security workers” and “two American veterans.”
The aid group did not provide specific evidence that Hamas was behind the attack.
The US and Israeli-backed group has been primarily responsible for aid distribution since Israel lifted its 11-week blockade of the Gaza Strip in May.
Read more:
Hamas gives ‘positive’ response to ceasefire proposal
Outcry as Israeli strike hits school
94 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, health staff say
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It comes after Sky News analysis showed GHF aid distributions are associated with a significant increase in deaths in Gaza.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, 600 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid from GHF sites as of 3 July, which charities and the UN have branded “death traps”.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press has reported that Israeli-backed American contractors guarding GHF aid centres in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades.
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Contractors allege colleagues ‘fired on Palestinians’
GHF has vehemently denied the accusations, adding that it investigated AP’s allegations and found them to be “categorically false”.
Israel’s military added that it fires only warning shots and is investigating reports of civilian harm.
It denies deliberately shooting at any innocent civilians and says it’s examining how to reduce “friction with the population” in the areas surrounding the distribution centres.
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