National Belgian Railways have yet to Acknowledge its Deportation of 25,431 Jews Auschwitz

April 14, 2019

Madam Sophie Dutordoir, CEO
SNCB Belgian Trains
Brussels

Madam CEO,

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre is an international Jewish human rights organization with a worldwide constituency of over 400,000 members. It applies the lessons of the Holocaust to counter antisemitism and other contemporary forms of discrimination and hate. The Centre is an accredited NGO at the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO) and the Council of Europe. 

Belgian members have brought to our attention a campaign by the Royal Society of Jewish Welfare in Antwerp.

Apparently the National Belgian Railways have yet to acknowledge its deportation of 25,431 Jews from the Mechelen/Breendonk concentration camps directly to their murder in the Auschwitz gas chambers.

It is, indeed, scandalous, that the SNCB has, for some 76 years remained silent regarding its complicity in a crime against humanity.

The Wiesenthal Centre supports the efforts of the Royal Society of Jewish Welfare and is ready to consider international measures to ensure justice in this gross travesty.

Most respectfully,

Dr. Shimon Samuels
Director for International Relations
Simon Wiesenthal Centre

 

C.C.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean of Simon Wiesenthal Centre

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of Simon Wiesenthal Centre
Dr. Alexander Zanzer, General Director, Royal Society of Jewish Welfare, Belgium