Transport XX from Caserne Dossin (Malines-Mechelen), Camp, Belgium to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 19/04/1943

Transport XX from Mechelen to Auschwitz left in the evening of April 19, 1943, shortly after the start of the Jewish Passover festival and comprised 1,631 deportees. It took three months to compile the list of the deportees which began on January 16 and was finalized only two days before the deportation date. The main reason for the slowing deportation rate was the fact that more and more Jews had gone into hiding and consequently the SiPo-SD found it increasingly difficult to arrest large groups of Jews. Besides a group of prisoners from Liège (Luik), detainees trickled into Mechelen one by one and in small groups consisting of couples or siblings, but rarely entire families. The youngest deportee was a little more than 5 weeks old and the oldest was 90. 237 deportees (17%) were children under the age of 15. 357 (22%) of the deportees were over the age of 50. Adolf Gerstl had escaped from Vienna to Belgium together with his family. He was 16 years old when he was arrested by the Gestapo in Brussels on March 5, 1943 and brought to Mechelen the following day. Gerstl was deported on transport XX. In a detailed testimony he related the daily routine in the transit camps as follows:...