Expert group investigates SNCB's role in Auschwitz deportations

After the presentation of a final report on the role of Belgian rail operator SNCB in the deportation of people during the second world war, a group of experts has been created to determine what actions should be taken.

In its report last December, the Centre d'études et de documentation Guerres et Société (CegeSoma) presented the final report which found that the SNCB was paid to deport Jews, Roma, members of the Resistance and other forced labourers to concentration camps.

The 150-page report, co-financed by the Senate and the federal mobility minister Georges Gilkinet, revealed that SNCB received nearly 51 million Belgian francs in the 1940s for its services in regards to deportations.

Between 1942 and 1944, 28 convoys organised on behalf of the German occupiers transported 25,843 people from Mechelen to Auschwitz. Only 1,195 of them returned alive.

Special trains manned by Belgian personnel were chartered by SNCB on the instructions of the occupying forces and under German military escort.

According to the report, the Belgian railway company considered these “services rendered” to the occupying forces as a necessary price to maintain transport and food supplies in Belgium, or “a policy of the lesser evil”.

In the light of these revelations, the federal government set up an expert working group chaired by Françoise Tulkens.

The 12-member group met for the first time last week and is due to continue its work and consider the follow-up to the report.

“How, 80 years on, can we make reparations?” Tulkens asked. “And how can we pass on what we’ve learned to future generations?”

The 12 experts are due to submit their conclusions by the end of November.