© Marcus R. Roberts (2015)

1942

In July - August 1942 a group of 2252 Jewish men, living in Belgium (some were born in Belgium but many from all across Europe) were stripped of their civil rights by the Germans, then thrown out of work and labelled as 'anti-social elements', and because they were un-employed forcibly separated from their families and deported to work as slave labour on Hitler's Atlantic Wall, in the vicinity of Boulogne and Calais and were sent to some 15 permanent and temporary forced labour camps, mostly along the coast.

1942

In October 1942, most of the foriegn-born Belgian Jews were transported, via Mechelin, in Belgium, direct to Auschwitz concentration camp, where 96% were killed, at, or soon after, their arrival. A smaller number of Belgian natal Jews remained at the local camps.