ByAnthea Gerrie, Anthea Gerrie
1 min read
ByAnthea Gerrie, Anthea Gerrie
A Holocaust survivor who escaped death because his mother pushed him off a train bound for Auschwitz has become the unlikely subject of a new opera.
Push is the title of the work commissioned by Glyndebourne and the Battle Festival, where it was performed earlier this month.
The story celebrates the life-saving act performed by Simon Gronowski's mother in 1943, when the two were en route to the death camp.
The 11-year-old survived in hiding - and 70 years later shared his experience with composer Howard Moody when attending another of his operas in Brussels.
"When I told him my life had only been miracles, he wrote it down there and then and told me his next opera would be about me," explained 84-year-old Mr Gronowski, who travelled to Sussex for the UK premiere.
Mr Gronowski and his mother were deported from Brussels to the death camps.
They were on the only convoy ever halted, albeit briefly, by the Belgian Resistance, enabling a couple of hundred prisoners to jump from the train.
"Some men in my wagon had smuggled stolen tools and used them to open the door of my wagon," he remembered.
"When it finally opened, many began jumping. My mother helped me down to the footstep, and when the train slowed down she pushed me."
It was the night before Pesach, and Mr Gronowski ran through the darkness to find sanctuary. But the owner of the first house he came across took him straight to the police.
He was taken into custody, but a constable chose to spare him, feed him, give him clean clothes and put him on a train back to Brussels.
From there he made his way to Catholic friends who took turns in hiding him.
They also hid his father, Leon, who was in hospital when the Gestapo came for the family.
Mr Gronowski's elder sister, Ita, was deported on a subsequent convoy and was murdered in Auschwitz.
Mr Gronowski qualified as a lawyer - he still works - and taught himself jazz piano; he plays regularly with a band and performed with Woody Allen two years ago in New York.
He has two children and four grandchildren.
"Push is the eighth miracle of my life," he explained.
"The opera was not just for me but all the Jewish children killed by the Nazis in Second World War, in Armenia in 1915 and today in Syria."
Where the likes of Carmen and La Traviata end in death, Mr Gronowski said: "This opera finishes with optimism."
Following the successful showing at Glyndebourne, future performances are likely to include outings in Jerusalem, Rome, Brussels, Paris and New York.
