The Miracles documentary is web work in progress…telling the personal story of the Belgian lawyer, jazz pianist, humanist, author, Simon Gronowski (Brussels, 1931), who as an 11 year-old child from a Brussels’ Jewish immigrant family, escaped from the 20th death train Transport XX to Auschwitz, the sole survivor in his family during the Holocaust — and the connected stories of…living miracles…like Viviane, who escaped in the womb of her pregnant mother Isabella from that Transport XX — and, the unlikely story of the intense friendship between Simon and his ‘brother’, the Belgian artist, sculptor, drawer, performer, Koenraad Tinel (Ghent, 1934), who grew up in a Flemish nationalist family that passionately supported Hitler in his Third Reich. The exceptional friendship of the two men, both in their 90s, is a powerful symbol of reconciliation, hope, happiness and peace.

A documentary of continuing stories , to be continued in a series of docs — in film, opera, and the news…

The first films we made, Transport XX – Installation Brussels (2009) , Transport XX face to face (2010), were followed by a first encounter with Simon Gronowski in 2011 , while working on our feature film doc Transport XX to Auschwitz (2012), and our commitment to keep documenting that story – continuing today – of this amazing man , making miracles work.
New stories emerged from Transport XX , like the story of Viviane , not even born when she escaped Transport XX in the womb of her pregnant mother Isabella Weinreb-Castegnier — a story we started first online (2014), next presented in the e-book Viviane’s Story (2019) , leading to new findings and insights to be told.

Miracles is an interactive transmedia project by Michel van der Burg in collaboration with many others…and is now live being rolled out using multiple mediums such as film, photography, ebooks, and web stories with the interactive website Miracles.Media as the main platform.
The first films and stories are being presented, and short and long docs will follow sequentially as episodes in the series Miracles Docs, accompanied by photo stories, and posting behind the scenes in ‘Making’.
The feature film Miracles is planned in the long run — based on the series.

Miracles is a co-production by Miracles•Media and Richard Bloom Productions

Update April 18, 2024