The two 22nd convoys, brought together after their departure from Mechelen, were not formed under the same circumstances. Convoy 22A was a normal transport. The letter A, from the German "Ausländisch"(foreign), means that the convoy was reserved for Jewish aliens. According to the deportation program that was set up in the summer of 1942, from June 1943 onwards, Jewish aliens should no longer be allowed in Belgium. However, this has not been achieved. They are increasingly difficult to detect because they have more than a year of experience in hiding. Since the departure of the 21st convoy of 31 July 1943, it turned out to be possible to bring together only 639 for the convoy of 20 September. Despite the precautionary measures, 8 deportees would escape from the Belgian border.
Convoy 22B is, so to speak, exceptional. The letter B indicates Jews of Belgian nationality. Most of these deportees - there were 794 - were arrested at their legal address during the night of 3 to 4 September 1943, in Antwerp but more so in Brussels. Until this date, and insofar as they obey the regulations of the Statute of the Jews, Belgian citizens were not "transportable". Their immunity dates from the summer of 1942. From July 9, the chief of the military administration personally intervened with the head of the SS and the German police of the Reich, Heinrich Himmler. SS General Eggert Reeder feared for the political consequences of the deportation of Belgians on relations with the national government. Their immunity allowed him to continue the deportation without causing a political crisis. This was the price paid for the silence or at least the discretion of the Belgian government during the start of the final solution. The “Action East” only concerned foreign Jews and took place during the summer of 1942 "without much sensation", to the great satisfaction of the occupying power.
However, Belgians were also arrested, particularly during the large raids in Antwerp. Although they were not "transportable", they remained locked up in the collection camp. Two hundred were released on 26 and 29 June 1943, thanks to the intervention of Queen Elisabeth. The troubled Government Security immediately prohibited the release of a third group. Since December 1942 the military administration has been under pressure to lift the protection of Jewish Belgians. On 20 July General Von Falkenhausen finally gave his consent, on two conditions: that the deportation of the foreigners was activated and that the Belgian persons who had a recommendation from the military authorities would be exempted. The 21st convoy of 31 July 1943 and the convoy 22A of 20 September 1943 met the first conditions.
The second condition, which was also met, was not sufficient to mitigate the impact of the raid on Belgians at the Belgian government. In Antwerp the night of 3 to 4 September was dramatic. 145 Belgian Jews were locked up for two hours in a hermetically sealed moving van, that transported them to the Mechelen assembly camp, a journey that normally takes half an hour. Upon arrival, 9 suffocated corpses and 80 unconscious people were removed. From 6 September the crisis with the Belgian authorities seemed inevitable. The General Director of the Ministry of Justice protested orally to the military government. He also hinted that the general secretaries of the Belgian ministries could no longer observe the administration of the occupied country if the Belgian Jews were deported. A few of them were released shortly before the departure of convoy 22B; of the 829 Belgian Jews arrested during the round-up, only 15 were not taken to Auschwitz.
From 17 September, most - mainly older people - were referred to retirement homes. Pending the waiver of the immunity of Belgian Jews, the military authorities had set up a new place. From the spring, after the departure of the 20th convoy, she had instructed the VJB to set up residential centers for the "abandoned" children and the elderly. The reaction of the high Belgian administrative authorities after the Antwerp drama required a different concession. "The arrest measures (against the Belgian Jews) have been lifted," the general secretaries of the ministries learned after their president and General Reeder had met on 17 September.
Unique for the deportation of the Jews from Belgium, convoy 22B arrived in Auschwitz on 22 September in a transport with convoy 22A of the foreigners. Of the 1425 Belgian and foreign deportees, who suffered the same fate, 875 were killed immediately. The eradication number was 61.4%. Yet there is a difference between the two convoys in terms of captivity. Of the 550 deportees who were registered in the concentration camp, 32 survived from the alien convoy - thus 5.1% - but only 19 from the Belgian convoy, thus 2.4%.
Source: Memorial of the Deportation of the Belgian Jews, pages 32 and 33.