Transport II from Caserne Dossin (Malines-Mechelen), Camp, Belgium to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 11/08/1942

Call-up letters summoning Jewish deportees for labour-service in Germany were distributed among non-Belgian nationals residing in Belgium. In the letters, which were distributed by the AJB, each person was ordered to report to casern Dossin. They were instructed to bring provisions for 14 days: non-perishable rations such as oat flakes and canned food, work boots, overalls and other indispensable clothes. Other items included a bowl and cup, ration coupons, clothing vouchers and identity papers. Jews holding Belgian citizenship, as well as Jews in mixed marriages were exempt from the first deportations. Only 40 percent of the Jews summoned reported for the first transport. As a result, the Sipo (Sicherheitspolizei - Security Police), the Feldgendarmerie (German military police units [FG]) and the Flemish SS carried out individual arrests of Jews who had failed to report and were now labeled, ‘gone into hiding’.

Historian Maxime Steinberg reports that between July 27 and August 15, 581 Jews who had not been summoned at all and who therefore were probably among the arrestees were deported. Among these 45 were deported on the transport of August 11....