The 16th and 17th convoy, which have been merged after their depart from Mechelen, deported in total 1676 persons, among them 137 children. For the first time, mass escapes had taken place at the Belgian section of the railroad track; 24 deportees jumped from the rolling train.
This transport was different from the previous one. The deportation of 31 October 1942 mainly concerned men. The convoy was not assembled on the basis of the people interned in the Kazerne Dossin. Most of them had not even been inside. They were coming from the camps of the Organization Todt in Northern France. 752 "compulsory workers" were entered on the list of the 16th and 562 on the list of the 17th convoy. They were deported via Mechelen and remained on the train which was then "replenished". They knew the conditions in the labor camps and therefore took the Belgian section of the railroad track to escape en masse.
The remaining 822 deportees from the 16th and the 874 from the 17th convoy arrived together in Auschwitz on 3 November 1942. The presence of “compulsory workers”in this transport made conditions for another treatment. Just as with other Jewish convoys, one started immediately with the extermination, but this time only 54,2% of the contingent, even less than the previous deportation. The 919 immediately murdered deportees, however, were also men, sometimes also compulsory workers, who arrived exhausted after several months of imprisonment in the camps in northern France. However, the selection was more compassionate for women of the transport. They were with 319, girls included , and only 51 of them were registered to enter the camp. Of the 753 deportees who were admitted to the camp, on 8 May 1945, 50 of the 16th and 35 of the 17th convoy were still alive.
Source: The Memorial of the Deporation of the Belgian Jews, pages 28 and 29.