Transport XV from Caserne Dossin (Malines-Mechelen), Camp, Belgium to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 24/10/1942

Transport XV left Mechelen on October 24, 1942 carrying 477 deportees (345 men and 132 women). The transportation list was compiled within two days from October 21 to October 23. The Nazi deportation machinery in Belgium ran at full steam following the RSHA announcement on August 28, 1942 that the deportation numbers of Jews residing in Belgium was to be increased to 20,000. It urged the BdS in Brussels and its Department for Jewish Affairs to complete the deportation quotas by the end of October since the German National Railway (Reichsbahn) was unable to supply the required means of transportation in the months November, December and January. SS-Obersturmführer Kurt Asche from the Department for Jewish Affairs in Brussels and SS-Oberscharführer Erich Holm, the head of the Antwerp Department for Jewish Affairs, had tried to comply with the order by organizing several large-scale raids that provided the majority of Jews for eight mass transports that were sent to Cosel and Auschwitz (starting on August 28). The first wave of deportation comprised 5,000 Jews in five transports, and roughly 8,500 Jews had been deported so far in a second wave. It took the BdS six weeks to assemble the eight transports. However, the ability to swiftly draw on large contingents of Jews had dwindled as more and more Jews went into hiding, often helped by the local population. The SiPo-SD had to resort to special arresting squads, unique police forces such as the Devisenschutzkommando - DSK (Foreign Exchange Protection Commando) and the German border guards, in addition to bounty hunters and informers. It was therefore clear that the BdS would not be able to reach the ambitious number of 20,000 within the remaining weeks....