Belgium’s state-owned rail company NMBS is going to make an official apology for the Belgian railways' role in organising deportation trains during World War II. The railway company decided to do so after a so-called Group of Sages recommended it. An exhibition on the NMBS's wartime past is also planned.
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Belgian rail company NMBS to apologise for role in deportations during World War II
Colin Clapson
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The Second World War is one of the darkest pages in the NMBS's history. Starting on 4 August 1942, the railway company put in 28 convoys between Mechelen and the Auschwitz death camp.
189,542 Belgian forced labourers, 16,081 political prisoners, 25,490 Jews and 353 Roma were deported. Of the Jews and Roma, we know that barely 1,195 returned alive after the Liberation in 1945.
A 2023 investigation - conducted by study centre CegeSoma on behalf of the federal government - revealed that the rail company received almost 51 million Belgian francs from the German occupier to put on the deportation trains. Converted into euros and taking inflation into account, that’s just under 15 million euros.
However, the study showed that the railway management of the day had made mistakes and had been blind to the consequences of cooperating with the Nazi regime. The study acknowledges that the occupying forces would never have accepted any opposition from the NMBS but argues that the management could have delayed the deportations.
Apologies to be made
The federal government set up a Group of Sages to make recommendations on how to deal with Belgium's past. In late January, the group, consisting of 12 members with varying profiles, drew up 30 recommendations. One of those recommendations is that apologies from NMBS are necessary to ensure that the victims receive recognition.
In 2012, the then NMBS CEO Jannie Haeck had acknowledged his company's role in the deportations, but no official apology was forthcoming. That will now happen, the railway company has announced.
‘On 24 January, the Board of Directors agreed to the principle of apologising on behalf of the NMBS for the role played at the time by the then Belgian railways company in carrying out transports during the Second World War,’ the company says.
“Occupied NMBS, between Collaboration and Resistance”
A temporary exhibition at train museum Train World on the railway company's wartime past, called “Occupied NMBS, between Collaboration and Resistance” is being staged. This will include testimonies from survivors as well as historical lectures. The exhibition runs from September 2025 to June 2026.
The rail company is also developing educational packages for primary and secondary schools that focus on responsibility. Educational workshops will be organised both in schools and at Train World with the support of the Dossin Barracks that served as a hub for the deportations and the War Heritage Institute.
A website will bring together all available resources including archives, documentation and historical collections related to the NMBS during the Second World War. The website will be launched in September 2025.