Donations to the library

Kazerne Dossin wishes to thank the following individuals for their donations to the library: Serge Klarsfeld, Willy Engels, Ward Adriaens, David Bommarito, Dudu Amitaï, Christian Van Kimenade, Patricia Ramet, Anne Velghe, Myriam Spira, and Jessy & Ronny Van de Velde.

The following institutions have also enriched our library through their donations: Stichting Gillès, l’Association philatélique du pays d’Aix, les éditions Lamiroy and the Mémorial de la Shoah.

Thanks to their support in 2023, we were able to add 126 new books to our library. At the end of 2023, the library had a collection of 9,896 books. Many duplicates have been removed from the library; books from before 1950 have been transferred from the regular library to the Preciosa collection, which is still under development. The inventories and catalogues have been revised, improved, and are now also available online.

Donations to the archive

Kazerne Dossin is especially grateful to the following people for their donations to the archive: Marcel Apsel, Gigi and Guy Benedictus, Michel and Myriam Both, Rob Bouman, Berthe Rosette Brandeis, Ghislaine Decker-Kloeck, Catharina Deckx and Guy De Mol, Lisa Diner, Daphna Epstein-Riff, Andrew Feder, Clara Fischman, Arnold Fridland, Colette Gilles de Fontenailles and her son Philippe Van Dooren, Philippe Golbert-Zagrai, Rosette, Monique and Denise Gross (sisters), Tania Gutwein-Stanger, Anne and Catherine Herscovici, Ann Huber, Alain and Laurence Kleinberger, Michele Komar, Koninklijke Kring voor Heemkunde Kontich, Paul Krellstein, his son Bruno Krellstein and his grandchildren Thomas and Elisabeth Krellstein, Maximilien Kutnowski, Arnold Neels, Jo and Sofie Peeters-Van Krunkelveldt, Liliane Reisdorf, Rosa Rochman, Tony Samuel, Emile Schwarz, Myriam Silberman and her son Eric Fux, Myriam Spira, Gary Swergold, Paul Van Orshoven, Saskia Verachtert, Rik Verbist, Patrick Verwerft and David Wasserman.

Kazerne Dossin thanks all the researchers, family members, and friends of deportees who made available photos for inclusion on the Portrait Wall.

Kazerne Dossin wishes to extend a very special word of thanks to the late Mr Norbert Vos-Obstfeld, who died on 13 May 2023 (read his obituary here). He actively contributed to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance and later Kazerne Dossin.

Image database

In 2023, Kazerne Dossin received 36 new donations. In 15 instances, our organisation received the original documents. The remaining collections consist of files that were already digitalised or were scanned on the spot by the team. All the documents, photographs and precious printed documents that we received were then described at the full collection level according to international standards and added to the image databank. Thanks to the efforts of our volunteers, all these items were then described individually. We conducted further research on the many photos to find out where and when they were taken, who is depicted, and what was the fate of these people. This past year, 42 archival collections were uploaded and made available in the image databank in elaborate details, including new acquisitions and donations from previous years.

Physical archive

Originals that are managed by Kazerne Dossin are preserved in the climate-controlled depot. Packaging in photo sleeves, acid-free covers, and boxes was done on site. In 2023, Kazerne Dossin once again collaborated with students and professors from the conservation-restoration programme at the University of Antwerp to correctly package dozens of precious objects for storage. During a practical on 29 March, 20 Bachelor students got to package metal, leather and wooden objects, such as a violin and some travel cases. They designed a sturdy, shock-resistant museum foam holder for each object, so the objects could be safely stored and transported in Raco crates.

Display case with changing displays

On 10 March 2023, Kazerne Dossin inaugurated a new display case. An installation was developed with the much-appreciated support of the Fondation Berler that allows us to bridge the gap between the museum and the Memorial. Objects from the daily lives of Jewish residents of Belgium, who were persecuted and in some cases also deported, direct visitors from the permanent exhibition to the memorial rooms in the old barracks building. The installation and display case can be found at the museum’s main entrance, with the display changing every four months and covering a wide range of personal objects and stories.

The first item on display was the leather work bag of Fritz Mandler, an electrician who was interned at the Dossin Barracks from the autumn of 1942 until liberation. Henri, Fritz’s son, and his children attended the inauguration. From July 2023, the desk of two deported children, i.e., Aline and Jacques Klajn, was on display in the case. This little office desk was entrusted to Kazerne Dossin by their niece Betti Blaugrund. In October, items from the Calixte Vandevelde collection were displayed, including four personal objects of Jews who were deported from the Dossin Barracks and which Calixte, an employee of the RTT, found and stored in hopes of returning them to their rightful owners after the liberation while working in the abandoned building.

Interview project

In 2023, Kazerne Dossin again interviewed Holocaust survivors. With the disappearance of the last witnesses, preserving their stories for posterity becomes an increasing priority. That’s how the team was introduced to the Gross family. The interview was organised on the occasion of Rosette Gross-Becker’s memoirs. Although she was born just after the war, she had detailed knowledge of the story of her family who managed to survive the war in hiding in Belgium. The team was able to interview both Rosette and her sisters Monique Gross-Banne and Denise Gross-Feibusch, each with their own memories of World War II. Thanks to the interview and some digitalised photographs, the Gross-Limonik collection was added to the Kazerne Dossin archive in 2023. In addition, the team was introduced to Myriam Silberman, whose childhood years were spent in hiding by Baroness Regina Sluszny. Her testimony was professionally recorded by Myriam’s son Eric Fux. The family archives were also digitalised, forming the Silberman-Holzer collection.

Digitalisation

In 2023, our digitalisation team scanned 420 files, consisting of 44,882 scans. The remaining files of the Verwaltung Müller, a German administration that claimed income from Jewish property, were also scanned. A brief investigation into this organisation yielded several files from the military court that were scanned in July. None of the organisation’s employees were punished for their activities, but some were prosecuted for other offences. As a result of this research, two texts on the Verwaltung Müller have been published to the research centre’s website, with more texts to possibly follow.

This was followed by a larger project to scan the archives of the Brüsseler Treuhandgesellschaft (BTG). Like the one above, this extensive archive deals with spoliation, but instead of real estate (properties), it focused on movable property such as money, stocks and bonds, valuable objects such as precious stones or precious metals. The BTG was a company established by a section of the German military administration (Gruppe XII) whose purpose was to appropriate funds derived from property owned by enemy powers and Jews.

European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI)

Kazerne Dossin is an active consortium partner of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI). EHRI is currently working towards becoming a stable, permanent organisation by 2025. Kazerne Dossin coordinates the content of the EHRI Portal. In 2023, it contributed to the reporting on the contextualisation of the original and copy archives and findings on specific thematic research themes in the Portal. Representatives of Kazerne Dossin actively participated in several meetings and workshops in Israel, Greece, and Serbia.

Research

In 2023, archivist Dorien Styven teamed up with Dr Janiv Stamberger, coordinator of the Peace Centre and Antwerpen Herdenkt, for a study of Jewish partisans in the organised resistance in Belgium during World War II. Among other things, they examined how many Jewish men and women were recognised as resistance fighters after the war, in which organisations they were active, and how this compares to the non-Jewish population. Thanks to this research, many new, personal stories of Jewish resistance fighters have come to light. The first research results were presented at a study day of the Algemeen Rijksarchief – Cegesoma in Antwerp on 10 May 2023.

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)

The IHRA organised two plenary meetings under the Croatian presidency: one in June in Dubrovnik and one in November in Zagreb. Kazerne Dossin was represented at both meetings. Veerle Vanden Daelen chaired the IHRA’s Monitoring Access to Holocaust Collections project. Its Recommendations on Archival Access were approved during the Zagreb Plenary.

Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH)

Since 2016, Kazerne Dossin has been a member of the DARIAH network (Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities) and a co-founder of the Sustainable Publishing of Metadata working group. Kazerne Dossin participated in virtual and physical meetings organised in 2023 in this capacity. In addition, the museum actively contributed to expanding the membership of this working group.

Portrait Ceremony

On 30 November 2023, Kazerne Dossin organised its 11th annual portrait ceremony. During this ceremony, 49 portraits/photos of deportees, that were found in the past year, were added to the memorial wall in the museum. The names of 39 Jewish victims who lived in Belgium but were deported from Drancy in France were also read out.Their portraits were also added to the collection last year.

Curator Veerle Vanden Daelen shared some moving stories about the portraits that were found. She also discussed the collaboration with the Struikelstenen in Deurne citizens’ initiative, which installs Stolpersteine or memorial plaques for victims of World War II in this Antwerp district. Several photos were found thanks to the support of this team. She also reflected on the story of Austrian professional football player Norbert Lopper: the photo of his brother Herbert was also added to the portrait wall in 2023. Archivist Dorien Styven elaborated on Anni Buchbaum’s story. Her photo was recovered by Jo Peeters, the curator of the House of the Franco-Belgian Resistance.

The photographs that were added to the memorial wall at Kazerne Dossin in 2023 came from the General State Archives, the Archives Caen, the House of the Franco-Belgian Resistance, the Johannes Blum collection, relatives and friends of the deportees, and researchers from around the world. Kazerne Dossin wishes to thank them for their support.

Partnerships

Kazerne Dossin continued its intense collaboration with the City of Antwerp. The exhibition City at War. Antwerp, 1940-1945 opened on 8 September 2023 in Museum aan de Stroom (MAS). The MAS has worked closely with Kazerne Dossin since 2020 for the section on the persecution of the Jews. The team provided input, expertise,and items for this exhibition. The City of Antwerp also relied on the assistance of Kazerne Dossin for the organisation of the Open Huizen remembrance weekend.

The team also collaborated with Diane von Furstenberg and Arthur Langerman for two documentaries about themselves and their families, who were victims of the persecution and deportation of Jews from the Dossin Barracks.

Kazerne Dossin was also an active partner in the History Olympiad, inviting a group of last-year students from GO! Voskenslaan in Ghent for a tour of the memorial and museum and coaching them as they prepared a remembrance project on Jewish pupils who attended their school.

We accompanied three groups on their study trip to Poland. We joined the first group during their one-day visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 21 March.The trip was organised by Radio Judaica for its listeners.

We also accompanied two groups of young people: a group from Jeunesse juive laïque (CCLJ) from 3 to 5 March and a group from Maison des Jeunes de Soignies from 25 to 27 July. They were given a guided tour of the ghetto of Cracow, the town of Kazimierz, the Belgian pavilion in Auschwitz, and Birkenau.

Talks and conferences

Tomas Baum, ‘Museums as moral spaces. How do we bring commemoration, memory, history and education under one roof? A roundtable on issues, dilemmas and professional challenges.’ Workshop voor Congress Living With War, The Hague, 3 October 2023.

Veerle Vanden Daelen, Contribution on #FakeImages in Module 3 “Elargir l’Espace Muséal”, and, together with Laurent Bigot, roundtable “Faire face aux dangers de la désinformation”, both in the context of “Fake News machen keine Geschichte!”, organised by the Goethe Institut Lyon-Marseille, 25 October 2023.

Veerle Vanden Daelen, ‘Kazerne Dossin’, visit and talk for “New Beginnings: Summer School on Jewish Studies”, organised by the Institute of Jewish Studies of the University of Antwerp, the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School for the Advanced Study in the Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Mechelen, Kazerne Dossin, 10 July 2023 (https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/research-groups/ijs/summer-school-2023/).

Veerle Vanden Daelen, ‘The Children – Which Future? Discussions on (legal) guardianship of Jewish children after the liberation in Belgium”, presentation accompanying “Issues Pertaining to Guardianship of Child Survivors”, The Diana and Eli Zborowski Center for the Study of the Aftermath of the Holocaust, 2023 Annual Workshop on the Aftermath of the Holocaust, Zoom workshop, 27 June 2023.

Dr Jonathan Brent (YIVO), Dr Pamela Nadell (American University), Dr Veerle Vanden Daelen (Kazerne Dossin), Dr Uffa Jensen (TU Berlin) and Dr Gavriel Rosenfeld (Center for Jewish History), Panel Discussion “Unmasking Antisemitism”, New York, Center for Jewish History, 26 January 2023 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVzwUbltR44).

Internship supervision, volunteers and Article 60 employees

In 2023, the Collections and Research team was once again able to rely on a strong team of passionate volunteers. Two volunteers took care of digitalising recent acquisitions for the Kazerne Dossin archive and scanning previously received donations. One of them searched for missing portraits for the memorial wall at the museum in existing collections. The other five volunteers worked on improving access to the content of our archival collections: they described photographs or created indexes to make it easier to search archives using personal names as keywords. Examples include the index cards with data on the looting of Jewish homes, the lists of children in hiding, and the archives of the Jewish Society.

In 2023, the Collections and Research team was also able to rely on the assistance of three individuals, who were matched with Kazerne Dossin by the Huis van de Mechelaar, with ‘Article 60’ employment contracts. Our intern Emma, a student at KU Leuven, also helped the team answer questions about deportees as a result of the Every Name Matters project.

Kazerne Dossin would like to thank Alexander, Christophe, Dirk, Emma, Erik, Filip, Gil, Hilde, Ilse, Jo, Roland and Tim for their commitment and their indispensable help in increasing the archive’s accessibility.

Talks and conferences

Laurence Schram, Préparation au voyage en Pologne, CCLJ, Brussels, 17 February 2023.

European Days of Jewish Culture, Lisa Saloch (ASF), Aline Benain (Adath Shalom, Paris), Laurence Schram, European polices and the lessons of the Shoah & participation in the Panel: “Commemorating the Shoah – yes, but how?”, Paris, Mémorial de la Shoah, Lecture, 22-23 February 2023,

Laurence Schram, Train d’espoir, Train d’Enfer, Study Day “Le Transport XX”, Fondation Auschwitz-Musée juif de Belgique, Brussels, 19 April 2023.

Laurence Schram, La Shoah en Belgique, Study Day “Ne meurent que ceux que l’on oublie – Les disparus de Gatti de Gamond”, Mémorial de la Shoah, 4 May 2023.

Laurence Schram, Préparation au voyage en Pologne, Maison des Jeunes de Soignies-CCLJ, Soignies, 1 July 2023.

Laurence Schram, Les Tsiganes du convoi Z à Malines, “Study day: les rafles des juifs et des tsiganes”, Musée de la Résistance, Bondues (France), 26 November 2023.

Dorien Styven and Janiv Stamberger, Het georganiseerd Joods verzet in Antwerpen: een stand van zaken, General State Archives – Cegesoma, Study day ‘Steeds Verenigd?’, Antwerp, 10 May 2023.

Dorien Styven, Kazerne Dossin – een virtueel plaatsbezoek in het depot, Vlaamse Vereniging voor Bibliotheek, Archief en Documentatie, study day ‘Leeszaalmedewerker Archief’, Mechelen, 19 September 2023.

Dorien Styven, Every Name Matters. Connecting historical and recent data for a modern commemoration project, Database conference, Westerbork, 12 October 2023