The twentieth train

On 19 April 1943, three young men stopped a train. The train was transporting 1631 Jews to Auschwitz. Equipped only with four pairs of pliers, a hurricane lamp and a single pistol, the trio carried out a plan that had been hatched by Jewish members of the resistance but rejected as too dangerous by the armed partisans. The three friends managed to free seventeen men and women before the German guards opened fire. By the time the convoy had reached the German border another 214 prisoners had managed to escape.