WWII children Simon Gronowski and Koenraad Tinel were awarded an honorary doctorate by VUB and ULB for the unique friendship they developed after the second World War.
Caroline Pauwels, rector of VUB, and Annemie Schaus, rector of ULB, jointly awarded two honorary doctorates on 22 September 2020, during the official openig of the academic year of VUB.
Simon Gronowski was born in Brussels. As a child, he survived deportation by jumping from the 20th Convoy, a train that was carrying Jews and others to Auschwitz in 1943. He holds a doctorate in law from the ULB, is a lawyer with the Brussels Bar and is the former president of the Union of Jewish Deportees in Belgium.
Koenraad Tinel was born in Ghent to a family who collaborated with the Nazis. After studying at the École de la Cambre, he became a draughtsman and sculptor and taught at the LUCA School of Arts in Brussels.
“We must offer new generations prospects: show them that it is possible to have a friendly relationship and build a future on the condition that one recognises the mistakes of the past,” says Caroline Pauwels. “It then becomes possible to detach oneself from the life to which the past seems to condemn one. Simon Gronowski and Koenraad Tinel give us a wonderful lesson in humanity.”
