EHRI Partner Belgium | Official report on the National Railway Company in Belgium and the Deportations
On 8 December 2023, head of the Belgian Study Centre War and Contemporary Society (CegeSoma/State Archives in Belgium) Nico Wouters presented the final report on the role of the Belgian Railway society (NMBS/SNCB) in deportations carried out during WW2 in Belgium. The research was commissioned by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mobility Georges Gilkinet and the Belgian Senate, and carried out between August 2022 and November 2023.
The research presents a broader war history of the Belgian National Railway Company to put the deportations in its historic context, but also to compensate for the problematic lack of archival sources. The report confirmed that the deportation trains were executed by the Belgian Railway Company.
For the first time, the research could also confirm that the NMBS/SNCB received close to 51 million Belgian francs from the Mitteleuropäische Reiseburo, to pay for the different deportation trains of Jews, Roma, forced laborers and probably also political prisoners. The report and book however offer a nuanced, complex and often contradictory occupation history of the company, with ample attention to the judicial and moral dilemma’s of the so-called Belgian ‘politics of the lesser evil’, as well as to the strong resistance movement within the company and the internal social policies by the general director.
The report and the book were received with wide attention by the national media. The responsible minister responded by creating a ‘council of sages’, which will have to reflect on follow-up measures and provide policy recommendations in 2024.
The integral report is available online in French and Dutch via the Senate website:
The book version (in Dutch) was published on 9 December. The French-language version will appear in March 2024 : https://new.cegesoma.be/en/node/2755
