When his daughter Sascha gave him a last wave from the train taking him to Zaventem, Edmond Pinczowski could never have guessed that the last would be. How Marjan Fasbender could never have imagined that she would never receive hugs from her son Alexander again. The spouses came to confide on Wednesday, before the Brussels Assize Court, the pain and anger caused by the assassination of their only two children on March 22, 2016 at Zaventem airport.
“I called Alexander about an invoice in his name. Our conversation was short, at 07:58 his voice disappeared”, said Edmond Pinczowski. “It was not until Friday that we were officially told that our children had not survived. The days following (the attack), we scoured the hospitals which received victims of the attacks with photos of Alexander and Sascha to help with the search. It wasn’t until later that we realized the shock we were in.”
“During the summer of 2016, a few months after the murder of our children, we were able to see their last moments of life on the CCTV of the airport. It is a proposition that many parents would not accept, but for us it was important. We were desperate,” explained Marjan Fasbender. “We were hoping to see happy faces, knowing they died smiling, instantly, not realizing what was going on.”
And the witness continues: “We saw one of the terrorists walking towards them, a young man who could have been a friend of theirs. I couldn’t help thinking ‘please go to the other side’. had no luck, they were practically face to face with their killer, who set off his bomb, killing them instantly, they will never know that they served as a shield for a family that was behind them, probably saving him life. Knowing that would have made them proud.”
“When my wife and I saw the surveillance footage from the lobby, with the three men who took our children’s lives, we couldn’t help but speculate what would have happened if these men had been their friends and not their self-proclaimed enemies”, added Edmond Pinczowski. “We shouldn’t have received their partially burnt luggage a few months later or returned to New York to recover Sascha’s possessions. To describe to you what these experiences do to a person is impossible for me.”
“The World Has Stopped”continued the mother of the two victims. “We are no longer the proud parents of fantastic children, we have to make an effort to get up in the morning and live our lives. We have bad days and some good ones, but our days will never be amazing again”she said before expressing her anger: “If I could decide, the defendants would be sentenced to life in hell. Because of their actions, I have become a worse version of myself. No event will be worth celebrating anymore. The only joy that I could have is to know that they will be behind bars.”
“I don’t think I will ever understand what happened and is still going on in the minds of these people. A crime of such magnitude and so meaningless is linked to a state of mind that I can’t understand”said Edmond Pinczowsky. “I have Jewish origins, my parents were the only survivors of the holocaust of their respective families. I knew neither grandparent, nor cousin, nor uncle, nor aunt and now I no longer have a child.”
The couple then spoke about the memory of their children, presenting Alexander as a very intelligent, curious and full of plans 29-year-old young man.
“A kind, humble giant who is always ready to help”, while her little sister, Sascha, 26, “brightened up every room she walked into with her smile and laughter”. Her parents described her as smart, beautiful, charismatic, passionate and “made for travel”. Both have been portrayed as very open-minded and especially about Islam.
The testimony ended with the reading of two long texts in which Cameron Cain, the ex-wife of Alexander Pinczowsky, returned to his relationship full of intense love with the young man and his privileged contacts with the sister and his parents.