Twtw: Simon Gronowski

this afternoon (sunday 3rd), 1.25-1.30pm, on bbc radio 4 

the world this weekend (presented by jonny dymond) concludes with …

“Simon Gronowski was eleven years old when he was put on a train bound for Auschwitz.

But the Belgian resistance had other ideas: they stopped the train with little more than a lamp and a pistol, and in that brief moment Simons’s journey changed from almost certain death to a long life.

He escaped, His story was told to composer Howard Moody six years ago, who promptly wrote an opera, PUSH, about it.

To celebrate Simon’ s ninetieth birthday, Howard put the opera on at almost the exact spot where in 1943 the train stopped and Simon’s mother pushed him to freedom.”

including interview with …

• simon gronowski, b. brussels 12.10.1931 

• composer howard moody 

(see also https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p02h8y5q)

Newsday: Simon Gronowski

this morning (monday 28th), 3.53-3.59am, on bbc world service radio
newsday concludes with …

“The extraordinary story of holocaust survivor Simon Gronowski is brought to life in an opera – ‘Push’ – to be performed today in the Houses of Parliament.”

including interview with …
• composer howard moody

HMD: House of Commons

last thursday afternon (24th january), 12.48-3.28pm, on bbc parliament tv (repeated in separate programme, 8.00am-10.42am on sunday 27th january)
house of commons 24/1/2019 includes …

Holocaust Memorial Day 2019

speeches by … Ian Austin (Lab) Peter Bottomley (C) Joan Ryan (Lab) Stephen Crabb (C) John Mann (Lab) Andrew Percy (C) Luciana Berger (Lab) Theresa Villiers (C) Jessica Morden (Lab) Fiona Bruce (C) Carolyn Harris (Lab)

Gillian Keegan (C) Chi Onwurah (Lab) Bob Stewart (C) Lisa Cameron (SNP) Bob Blackman (C) Lyn Brown (Lab) Stephen Kerr (C) Jamie Stone (LD) Matthew Offord (C) Pat McFadden (Lab) Ian Paisley (DUP) Liz McInnes (Lab)

David Linden (SNP) Peter Grant (SNP) Jim Shannon (DUP) Patrick Grady (SNP) Yvonne Fovargue (Lab) Heather Wheeler (C)interventions by … Anna Turley (Lab) Mike Wood (C) Alex Sobel (Lab) Jim Cunningham (Lab) Paula Sherriff (Lab)

(transcript at https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2019-01-24/debates/55340293-5D4A-4B46-B8F5-E52ABF06AA3C/HolocaustMemorialDay)
(if you missed it, available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0c2vnm5/house-of-commons-holocaust-memorial-day or from 1:34:13 to 4:15:30 at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0c0x3bg/house-of-commons-24012019)

Simon Gronowski

this morning (tuesday 27th), 8.50-9.00am, on bbc world service radio (freeview channel 710 or 107)
witness: in 2013 sarah ehrlich interviewed simon gronowski (brussels, 1931)

“In 1943, a group of Belgian Jews escaped from a train bound for the gas chambers at Auschwitz.
In the only incident of its kind, they were helped by members of the Belgian resistance.
Simon Gronowski was just 11 years old when he jumped from the train to safety.”

see also http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22188075
see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_the_twentieth_convoy and http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maistriau