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JewishHistoryעברית

Deportation of Jews from Mechelen

Date
July 1942 – September 1944
Location
Mechelen (Malines) to Auschwitz-BirkenauBelgium, Poland
Then part of
German-occupied Belgium
Perpetrators
  • SS (State)
  • Flemish Belgian auxiliaries at the Dossin barracks (Militia / auxiliaries)
Killed (estimate)
25,257 – 25,631[1]Jews deported from the Mechelen (Dossin) transit camp; most were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. USHMM gives 25,257 Jews on 28 trains between 4 August 1942 and 31 July 1944. Kazerne Dossin gives 25,490 Jews (and 353 Roma) between July 1942 and September 1944, with 1,412 still alive at the liberation of the camps. Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jewish Virtual Library) gives 25,631 deported in 31 convoys by 31 July 1944, of whom 1,244 returned.
Country

28% – 43% of the Jewish population of German-occupied Belgium (c. 1940)[51]

Worldwide

0.15% – 0.16% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1939)[5]

Expelled (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Category
Genocide, Expulsion
Confidence
DisputedUSHMM gives 25,257 Jews deported on 28 trains; Kazerne Dossin gives 25,490 Jews; Encyclopaedia Judaica gives 25,631 in 31 convoys. Survivor counts also differ (USHMM fewer than 2,000 from Belgian deportations overall; Kazerne Dossin 1,412 still alive at camp liberation; EJ 1,244 returned). The range is the deported totals, not a single agreed death toll.

Summary

In the summer of 1942 the Germans converted the Dossin de St. Georges barracks in Mechelen into a transit camp for Jews in occupied Belgium. The first group arrived from Antwerp on 27 July 1942. USHMM states that between 4 August 1942 and 31 July 1944, 28 trains carrying 25,257 Jews left Mechelen for German-occupied Poland, most of them to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The camp staff was mostly German, with a few Flemish Belgian auxiliaries; Phillip Schmitt was official commandant and Rudolph Steckmann acting commandant. The Germans closed the camp in September 1944 as Allied forces approached.

Sources

  1. Mechelen. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  2. Belgium. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  3. History. Kazerne Dossin
  4. Belgium. Jewish Virtual Library (Encyclopaedia Judaica)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 16,500,000 – 16,633,675[5]c. 1939DellaPergola's revised core estimate for 1 January 1939 is 16.5 million. The American Jewish Year Book 1948–49 compiled 16,633,675 at the end of 1939.
  • German-occupied Belgium: 60,000 – 90,000[51]c. 1940USHMM Belgium: under occupation between 65,000 and 70,000 Jews lived in Belgium (overwhelmingly foreign/stateless). USHMM Losses: 90,000 in 1939. USHMM 1933 table: 60,000. AJYB Moskowitz note discusses refugees in Belgium among western European totals.

Sources for population estimates

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  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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