In 2012, Belgium assumes the presidency of the "International Task Force for Holocaust Remembrance, Education and Research", which defends democratic values through educational efforts against racism and anti-Semitism.
To emphasize the importance of the Belgian presidency and on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp on January 27, 1945, the National Committee of the Jewish community of Belgium for the Restitution and Memory organizes on Thursday a solemn ceremony with the presence of Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, and Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo.
The ceremony takes place in Mechelen, a city located between Brussels and Antwerp, from where Jews from Belgium were deported to Auschwitz.
Among participants will also be Beate Klarsfeld, wife of Nazi criminals hunter Serge Klarsfeld, and Julius Berman, chairman of the Claims Conference in New York.
In 1940, about 70,000 Jews lived in Belgium. 36% of them were deported from the transit camp in the Dossin barracks near Mechelen. In the summer of 1942 until 1944, twenty-eight transports left Belgium with 25,257 Jews to Auschwitz, including 5,093 children. Only 1,205 people survived.