The fourth transport in 1944 and the last of the occupation, the convoy of 31 July 1944, is as sparsely populated as the previous one. It consists of 563 people including 47 children. The hunt for Jews in hiding, which remains at the same level, ensures the greatest possible result, "on average 80 to ± 100 Jews per week". In this respect, Canaris ’report of 15 June speaks of “great difficulties ”. From now on, the police no longer only target people in hiding. They are now also attacking 3,000 to 5,000 Jews who are still legal and who enjoy protection. Even the legal ghetto of the VJB in the capital is no longer protected. 52 people are picked up from the kitchen on 3 July.
On 5 July 1944, the SS officer responsible for local Jewish affairs, SS adjutant Major Wilhelm Stade, arrested some 60 Jews of Belgian nationality overnight. The mass of still legal Jews is still concentrated around the VJB in Brussels, but the 26th convoy departs from Mechelen for the final coup.
207 people are gassed on arrival in Auschwitz on 2 August. However, the eradication number remains on the low side: 36.8%, one of the lowest numbers. Relatively more deportees are being admitted to the camp, 356 persons, who will therefore survive in large numbers. For the first time, more than half of the registered persons will still be alive at the Liberation of the camps, nine months later. The survival rate of this 26th convoy, which is not representative at all, is 33%.
About the 27th convoy that never left.
The formation of the 27th convoy starts from 1 August 1944. The final solution must be terminated. In mid-August, Eichman's special envoy, Anton Burger, came to Brussels to put an end to the venture he set up two years earlier. Since the beginning of the month, the Jewish section prepared the final battle. He was after the legal Jews: the directors and staff of the VJB, the staff and the children of the homes of the VJB and also the elderly and their homes, as well as the "artisans", fur workers of the Lustra company in Brussels and the "Zionist veterans" who had German-Palestinian exchange certificates. These Jews were not to be deported to Auschwitz but to Bergen Belsen.
The date of the raid was set on 28 August 1944, but never took place. The rapid advance of the Allied forces obliged the SS police to withdraw to Hasselt and Anton Burger did not get any fuel for the lorries of the raid.
In Mechelen, 490 people were still guarded by the last SS men, not Germans, who have fled from northern France. They left the barracks on 3 September. On 4 September 1944, the people who were registered on the list for the 27th convoy were released again.
Source: Memorial of the Deportation of Belgian Jews, page 36.