Transport XX Portraits of Deportees

The Museum of the deportation of Jews and of the resistance (JMDV) in Mechelen, Belgium has prepared an exhibition of portraits of all the people that were deported on one of the trains to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Portraits of 1200 per-sons were installed along the railway track in Mechelen. This was the exact place where the train passed by on the way to Auschwitz on April 19, 1943. These same portraits were later exhibi-ted in Cologne, also facing the railway track (between the Hohen-zoller bridge and the cathedral) that had been used by the deporta-tion trains to Auschwitz.

In Belgium, a total of 24 916 Jews and 315 Roma were sent to extermination camps: 28 convoys. The Twentieth transport was in some way special. It was the largest - 1636 persons, including 242 children. Among these people ware also the oldest person deported, Jakob Blom – 91 years old, and the youngest being Susanna Kaminski - 39 days old. It was this Transport where, for the first time, goods wagons were used instead of passenger carriages. Before, many people used to escape through the windows of the third class carriages. The train consisted of 30 goods wagons and two carriages for the guards (41 German policemen). The Twentieth convoy was also the only train on which an attempt was undertaken by three Belgians to liberate the deportees. Seventeen persons were freed in this instance.Twelve hundred portraits are exhibited, mainly photos taken from identification cards. Juveniles were included in the passports of the parents, that is why there are only few children's pictures, and these came from family photographs.The fate of 1,636 persons of the Twentieth convoy is as follows: 232 persons managed to escape. Of these, 87 were recaptured and deported again. 26 fugitives were killed. 119 escaped and survived the occupa-

tion, they were hidden by Belgian families. 521 persons received an identification number on arrival at Auschwitz - they were not sent to the gas chambers. Of these, 152 survived. Upon arrival at the camp 883 persons immediately disappeared without a trace.

They were young and old, children, intellectuals and workers, Ortho-dox rabbis and non-religious people. Men, women and children, who had only one desire - to live. And they were deprived of this right because they had a Jewish mother. They were meant to disappear ...

This exhibition was created as part of a project called "Give them a Face". Look at these people: the pictures were taken before they knew their destiny. You can try to imagine their characters, their past, their future, which they were deprived of ...

Music: Antonio Vivaldi

Transport XX Portraits of Deportees