Transport XXII B from Caserne Dossin (Malines-Mechelen), Camp, Belgium to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 20/09/1943

Transport XXIIB from Mechelen to Auschwitz left on September 20, 1943 and comprised 794 deportees. This transport consisted only of Jews who held Belgian citizenship, a fact indicated by the letter "B" that was added to the transport number XXII (B=Belgische Juden,i.e. Belgian Jews). Individual Jewish Belgian nationals were being deported as early as August 1942 for violations of the anti-Jewish decrees. However, the systematic deportation of the Belgian Jews had been prevented at that time due to the successful objection of several leading Belgian figures such as members of the Belgian civil service, and Cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey, the head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, as well as foreign heads of state such as the Queen of England....