On 30 August 1995, Mr. Simon Gronowski kindly permitted the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin, to digitise two letters and three photos in this collection. On 21 May 1996, Mr. Simon Gronowski permitted to digitise five other letters, one diary and two postcards. In 2019, he permitted to digitise 128 other photos.
Simon Gronowski, born on 12 December 1931 in Uccle, Belgium, is a Holocaust survivor. His parents were Léon (or Lajb, or Leib) Gronowski and Chana Kaplan. Léon Gronowski was born on 19 April 1898 in Rodziejów, Poland. He was a leather merchant. Chana Kaplan was born on 10 December 1902 in Jurbarkas, Lithuania. Before Simon, the couple had a daughter named Ita who was born on 24 September 1924 in Liège, Belgium. The family lived at Chaussée de Wavre, 639, in Etterbeek, Brussels, Belgium. Remacle and Madeleine Rouffart were neighbours of the Gronowski family. The two families developed close relations. Madeleine Rouffart was also the manager of Mr. Gronowski’s leather enterprise. Her son, Raymond, was a close friend of Simon. Her daughter, Marguerite or Maggy, was a schoolmate and friend of Ita Gronowski. With the onset of the deportations of the Jews to death camps in summer 1942, Madeleine found a hiding place for the four Gronowskis with the family of an acquaintance, Mrs. Poilvache, in Woluwé-Saint-Lambert, Belgium. They stayed here from 1 September 1942 to March 1943. On 17 March 1943, caused by a denunciation, Simon, his sister Ita and their mother Chana, were arrested by the Gestapo. Léon Gronowski was not at home. He was at the hospital because of depression. Simon, Ita and Chana were interned in the Dossin barracks for one month. On that same day, Remacle Rouffart and José Delsart, went to the hospital where he was being treated and whisked him out to prevent his arrest. They brought him to the house of José’s parents, Julia and Charles Delsart, where he found safe shelter until the end of the war. During the Gronowskis’ incarceration in the Dossin barracks, Madeleine Rouffart visited them, provided them with food parcels, transmitted their letters and tried desperately to free them, but without success. On 19 April 1943, Simon and his mother were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau with Transport XX as numbers 1233 and 1234. Ita was sixteen years old and could opt for Belgian nationality. At this time, Belgian Jews were not deported, thus, Ita stated in the Dossin barracks. Transport XX was attacked by three members of the resistance near Borgloon, Belgium. Youra Livschitz, Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau managed to bring the transport to a halt and to open one cattle car’s doors. Seventeen people were able to jump from the train. In total, 236 Jews got out of this train, escaping from other wagons. Some of them had planned their breakout while at Dossin, assisted by Jewish employees at the camp. 26 of them were killed or mortally wounded in the attempt. Ninety were recaptured and re-deported. Simon Gronowski managed to jump from the train. His mother took him to the step and made him jump at the right moment. Simon was helped by people to go to Brussels and find his father at Rouffart’s. Madeleine Rouffart immediately took Simon to his father’s hideout at the Delsarts’ where he stayed from June 1943 until January 1944. Then he was moved to Henri Pieri and his wife Joséphine Calvaer, who sheltered him for eight months until the Liberation. Simon’s mother did not succeed in escaping and was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau. On 20 September 1943, his sister Ita, was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau with transport XXIIB as number 274. The letter “B” in Transport XXIIB means “Belgisch” (Belgian) because this transport brought together Jews of Belgian nationality for the first time. Ita was gassed on her arrival. Simon and his father survived the war. They returned to live in Etterbeek, Belgium. Léon Gronowski, stricken with sorrow and illness, died in 1945. At fourteen years old, Simon remained alone. He managed to finance his studies and became a lawyer and a doctor of law. He did not talk about his life during the war until the 1990s. In 2002, Simon wrote and published his story entitled “Eindelijk bevrijd” or “L’enfant du 20e convoi” in French (The child of Transport XX). In 2005, Simon’s account was adapted for children and a book entitled “Simon, het jongetje dat wist te ontsnappen” or “Simon, le petit évadé” in French (“Simon, the little escapee”) was published. On 27 January 2005, Yad Vashem recognised Madeleine Rouffart, Julia and Charles Delsart and Henri and Joséphine Pieri as Righteous Among the Nations.
Digital copy available as collection KD_00846 at Kazerne Dossin.
KD_00846_A000821 until KD_00846_A000829 are stored in the archive of Kazerne Dossin Research Centre. The other items in this collection are part of the private collection of Simon Gronowski.
GRONOWSKI S., Simon, het jongetje dat wist te ontsnappen, Van Halewyck, 2005. GRONOWSKI S., TINEL K., VAN REYBROUCK D., Eindelijk bevrijd, Hannibal, 2013. PIRART F., GRONOWSKI S., Simon, l’enfant du 20e convoi, Renaissance du Livre, 2008. MICHIELS M., Het XXste transport naar Auschwitz. De ongelijke strijd op leven en dood, Antwerp, 2012. STEINBERG Maxime and SCHRAM Laurence, Transport XX Malines-Auschwitz, Brussels, 2008.
An audio-visual testimony of Simon Gronowski is part of the Johannes Blum collection at Kazerne Dossin (KD_00016); Fonds Directorate of War Victims: A000772- A000773, Sipo-SD file of Simon Gronowski.
No further accruals are to be expected.
Contact Kazerne Dossin Research Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu
253 digitised images (132 photos, 2 identification cards, 6 letters, 1 diary, 2 postcards)
This collection comprises photographs documenting the life of the Gronowski family in Belgium from the 1920s to the 1940s and postwar until 2018. It includes images of Simon Gronowski and his sister Ita, capturing various stages of their lives, and also various photographs of their parents, Léon (Leib) Gronowski and Chana Kaplan, taken among other places in their garden at 639 Chaussée de Wavre, Brussels. Also included are photos of Simon and Ita in the Ardennes, and of Ita in class photos from primary school and École Cymring and with classmates like Albert Goldman, Jacques Angielczyk, and Maurice Wulfowicz. Additionally, there are photos of Léon in army uniform from 1920, Chana with her mother in Lithuania in 1923, and Léon with friends in the early 1920s. Photographs from 1941 and 1942 show Ita and friends in Brussels during German occupation, often wearing the yellow star mandated for Jews. The collection also includes a yellow Star of David worn by a family member, and photos of Simon four months after escaping Transport XX, during a holiday in Couvin with the Rorive family who hid him there for a few weeks. Aside from photos, there are also documents included in this collection. Two letters were written in June 1943. The first is from Simon Gronowski, a Jewish hidden child, to his father, stating that he is safe with Mrs. Delsart and has heard his mother is in Upper Silesia. He also mentions that Mrs. Rouffart is trying to free his sister Ita from the Dossin barracks. The second letter, from Léon Gronowski to Simon, advises Simon to be brave and careful, stating that a reunion will happen after the war. The third letter, written in Yiddish by Chana Kaplan from the Dossin barracks on 18 April 1943, is addressed to her husband Léon. Ita Gronowski wrote two letters on 14 August 1943, to her father Léon, describing her monotonous life in the Dossin barracks and warning him of potential round-ups, and to her brother Simon, urging him not to forget her and to write more often. The fourth letter from Ita on the same day is to Mr. and Mrs. Rouffart, but it is difficult to read due to ink leakage. Léon Gronowski's diary, from 1935, contains book titles, monetary records from 1943 and 1944, and quotations, with occasional Yiddish entries. He records his thoughts and feelings, noting 30 November as the anniversary of his family's internment at Dossin barracks. Two postcards from Ita to Maggy Rouffart, are dated the day before her deportation with Transport XXII. In these, Ita asks Maggy to spare her father Léon the news of their deportation and mentions leaving for an unknown destination, possibly the Netherlands. Ita threw these postcards from the train in the Diest area, Belgium. Lastly this collection contains a postwar membership card of the International Youth Hostels Federation (IYHF) and an access card to the reading room of the Royal Library of Belgium both belonging to Simon Gronowski.
Gronowski-Kaplan family. Collection