Transport XXVI from Caserne Dossin (Malines-Mechelen), Camp, Belgium to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 31/07/1944

Transport XXVI from Mechelen to Auschwitz left on July 31, 1944 and comprised 563 deportees (295 men and 268 women). It was the last mass transport from Mechelen to Auschwitz. The Allied Forces had landed in Normandy in Northern France on June 6 (D-Day), around 400 km west of the Belgian border. After the initial fierce fighting at the Atlantic Wall they broke through the German defense lines and quickly advanced towards Brussels which would be liberated on September 3. Transport XXVI left Mechelen just before the planned assault on the Belgian capital which had been abandoned due to the hasty retreat of the Germans. ...