Amsterdam: The Belgian national railway company earned the equivalent of millions of dollars for deporting nearly 25,000 Jews and Roma, as well as forced laborers and members of the resistance, to Nazi concentration camps during World War II, a report has found.
From 1942 to 1944, the Belgian railway sent 28 trains carrying 25,843 Jews and Roma people to Auschwitz; most were killed on arrival, and only 1,195 survived, according to the report, which was compiled by a war research center attached to the State Archives of Belgium.
Doing the bidding of the Nazis, the railway also sent more than 16,000 political prisoners to camps and prisons such as Buchenwald, the report found. It noted that the rail company had been paid 51 million Belgian francs for the transports, equivalent to several million dollars today.
“The fact that the national railway company was responsible for the deportations of Jews and Roma and also other victim groups was something we already knew, but our knowledge was very superficial,” said Nico Wouters, author of the report and director of the war research center. “There was no in-depth investigation into the how or why, the context or if there was any protest. We now have the full story.”
The report was commissioned by Belgium’s Senate, the upper house of the country’s Parliament, in 2022. The findings were presented Dec. 8.
The railway, known by its French initials, SNCB, was established in 1926. It functioned as a “semi-governmental” autonomous company, although its main client was the Belgian state. During World War II it continued to operate autonomously while Belgium was occupied by the Nazis.
In a written statement, the company said, “The SNCB has always fully subscribed to ensuring that all light can be shed on the role of the Belgian railways at the time in the deportations.” The railway “will now take note of the study and follow up,” the company added, although it did not immediately say what further action might be taken.
Gideon Taylor, president of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, which advocates compensation for Holocaust victims, said that the Belgian report was part of a larger effort by Western European governments to reckon with a dark history.
“The fact that it was commissioned by the Parliament is very important,” Taylor said. “It’s a sign that this is something that Belgium wants to address."