Registration & deportation · Belgium · 1940–1944
German orders required institutions to identify Jews before isolating and deporting them.
Explore BelgiumPublished by WTJPublication updated
1940–1944
Registration & deportation · An address becomes a target
German orders required institutions to identify Jews before isolating and deporting them.
The registration order
German authorities occupied Belgium in May 1940 and imposed anti-Jewish regulations. Jews had to register, and restrictions narrowed their work and movement. Registration was an act of persecution with practical consequences: an official list made it easier to identify and locate the people being targeted.
Mechelen becomes a transit point
Deportation transports left the Dossin barracks in Mechelen for Auschwitz. German authorities organized the operation, and Belgian collaborators and police participated in arrests in particular places. Naming those actors matters: a transport required orders, custody and people to carry the orders out.
Resistance interrupts the machinery
Jewish resistance organizations and other helpers hid people, including children. In 1943, resisters attacked the twentieth deportation transport and enabled some prisoners to escape. These actions saved lives within a wider catastrophe. Persecution was organized, and so were some responses to it.