Transport XXI from Caserne Dossin (Malines-Mechelen), Camp, Belgium to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 31/07/1943

Transport XXI from Mechelen to Auschwitz left on July 31, 1943 and comprised 1,560 deportees (781 men and 779 women). It was one of the biggest mass transports from Mechelen to Auschwitz. It took three and a half months to assemble. Compiling the transport list began on April 15, 1943, even before the departure of transport XX and it was finalized on July 27. The transport included 244 children and young adults under the age of 18. 105 boys and 69 girls were younger than 15 and 62 children were under 6. 14 babies were deported together with their mothers. The vast majority (75%) was between 18 and 59. 849 Jews were Polish citizens, 287 Jews were from the Reich, and 99 were Dutch Jews who had fled from the Netherlands. More than 1,200 deportees had lived in Brussels prior to their arrest. The Sipo-SD in Brussels and its branches found it increasingly difficult to provide a constant flow of Jews into the Mechelen camp. Consequently, they relied more and more on the independent Jew hunt of the Devisenschutzkommando - DSK (Foreign Exchange Protection Commando) and the German border guards. The DSK, a special German police force, reported to the Reich’s financial administration and was responsible for confiscating privately owned assets such as foreign currencies, equities, bank deposits, bond certificates, diamonds, and gold. The customs services had the job of stopping people crossing the border illegally. The two services worked closely together, hunted down fugitives and Jews in hiding, and seized anything of financial value. The border police and the DSK usually turned Jewish detainees over to the SiPo-SD who subsequently transferred them to Mechelen. A considerable number of the deportees from transport XXI were captured by these special units....