Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance
Encyclopedia
The Kazerne Dossin, a former casern
in Mechelen
, Flanders
, Belgium
, was partially renovated for civil housing and, upon the Flemish Government
, the Province of Antwerp and the City of Mechelen's financing the purchase of the ground floor and the basement of the right wing, in 1996 these became the site of the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance. It was renamed Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights for it is being expanded. The former casern part will be a memorial. It was there that the Nazi
s established SS-Sammellager Mecheln
, a collection camp run by the Schutzstaffel
from where between 1942 and 1944, 24,916 Jews
and 351 Gypsies were transported to the Holocaust camps in the east. Two thirds were gassed upon arrival. By the time of the liberation, only 1,221 people survived.
The temporarily closed Jewish Museum covered the following aspects of the Final Solution
in Belgium and Europe:
In 2001, the Flemish Government decided to expand the site by a new museum complex opposite the old barracks. It is expected to reopen its doors in Autumn 2012 and its website (in July 2011) already carries the new name in full: Kazerne Dossin – Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights.
Casern
In fortification, caserns, also spelled cazern or caserne, are little rooms, lodgments, or apartments, erected between the ramparts, and the houses of fortified towns, or even on the ramparts themselves; to serve as lodgings for the soldiers of the garrison, to ease the garrison, in Portugal and...
in Mechelen
Mechelen
Mechelen Footnote: Mechelen became known in English as 'Mechlin' from which the adjective 'Mechlinian' is derived...
, Flanders
Flemish Region
The Flemish Region is one of the three official regions of the Kingdom of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region. Colloquially, it is usually simply referred to as Flanders, of which it is the institutional iteration within the context of the Belgian political system...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, was partially renovated for civil housing and, upon the Flemish Government
Flemish government
The Flemish Government is the executive branch of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region. It consists of up to a maximum of eleven ministers, chosen by the Flemish Parliament...
, the Province of Antwerp and the City of Mechelen's financing the purchase of the ground floor and the basement of the right wing, in 1996 these became the site of the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance. It was renamed Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights for it is being expanded. The former casern part will be a memorial. It was there that the Nazi
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
s established SS-Sammellager Mecheln
Mechelen transit camp
The Mechelen transit camp, or officially SS-Sammellager Mecheln in German, was a detention and deportation camp established in the Dossin, the oldest casern at Mechelen, by the Nazi German occupier of Belgium...
, a collection camp run by the Schutzstaffel
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
from where between 1942 and 1944, 24,916 Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and 351 Gypsies were transported to the Holocaust camps in the east. Two thirds were gassed upon arrival. By the time of the liberation, only 1,221 people survived.
The temporarily closed Jewish Museum covered the following aspects of the Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
in Belgium and Europe:
- The rise of the extreme right in Belgium and abroad
- The antisemitic policies imposed by occupying Germany
- The Jewish resistance and hiding of children
- The deportation of the Belgian Jews in convoys
- The Final Solution
In 2001, the Flemish Government decided to expand the site by a new museum complex opposite the old barracks. It is expected to reopen its doors in Autumn 2012 and its website (in July 2011) already carries the new name in full: Kazerne Dossin – Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights.
External links
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Mechelen
- Kazerne Dossin – Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights