The Jewish writer Thomas Geve was just a teenager when he was deported to Auschwitz. After the liberation, he drew his memories and documented everything that he witnessed in the camp. His book ‘The boy who drew Auschwitz’ is a deeply moving testimonial. Judy Cohn, Thomas’s half-sister, shared his story with us, with Veerle Vanden Daelen providing some historical context.
Annual report
Annual report 2022
Introduction
Kazerne Dossin’s mission continues to be both topical and relevant in 2022 - eighty years after the first deportations from the Dossin Barracks. We are a place of remembrance, with a high level of sensitivity, inviting and challenging visitors. In addition to learning about the Holocaust at our memorial and museum, people also gain an insight into the mechanisms that facilitated the events. Doing justice to history is neither obvious, nor easy as the current significance of the historical Nazi terror is far from unequivocal. We thus need to always remain alert and aware, detecting authoritarian tendencies in society, both close to home and farther abreast.
This past year, we have raised visitors’ awareness in various ways. The permanent exhibition situates events in Mechelen in the broader historical context of the Holocaust. This year, 210 portraits of deportees were added to the commemorative wall during the Portrait Ceremony, ‘Universal Human Rights’, this year’s temporary exhibition, challenged people to reflect on the implications of these human rights on a personal and universal level. We also highlighted several themes and perspectives during book talks and guest exhibitions in addition to sharing new insights from research.
Kazerne Dossin’s tenth anniversary was also an opportunity to reflect on the importance and relevance of the memorial, museum, and research centre with many of our stakeholders. We organised a remembrance concert for the victims and developed new projects to achieve Kazerne Dossin’s public mission in the years to come - together with you.
Tomas Baum, Director
This past year, we have raised visitors’ awareness in various ways. The permanent exhibition situates events in Mechelen in the broader historical context of the Holocaust. This year, 210 portraits of deportees were added to the commemorative wall during the Portrait Ceremony, ‘Universal Human Rights’, this year’s temporary exhibition, challenged people to reflect on the implications of these human rights on a personal and universal level. We also highlighted several themes and perspectives during book talks and guest exhibitions in addition to sharing new insights from research.
Kazerne Dossin’s tenth anniversary was also an opportunity to reflect on the importance and relevance of the memorial, museum, and research centre with many of our stakeholders. We organised a remembrance concert for the victims and developed new projects to achieve Kazerne Dossin’s public mission in the years to come - together with you.
Tomas Baum, Director
2022 in figures
0
Visitors
0
Permanent exhibition
0
Temporary exhibitions
- Universal Human Rights
- Whosoever saves a single life, saves the entire universe
- Ordinary people in times of war
- #Stolen Memory
- Missing Stories
- 28243 Kids and youngsters (in group or individually)
- 6226 Adults on training courses
- 19040 Adults in their free time
0
Events
0
Research center
- 70486 Unique visitors to the website
- 11200 Followers on social media
2022: an overview
23
January
2022
Afternoon book talk ‘The boy who drew Auschwitz’
23.01.2022
2022
27
January
2022
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
27.01.2022Together with ‘Vredescentrum’, Kazerne Dossin commemorated the victims of the Holocaust with a screening of the silent movie ‘Stadt ohne Juden’ (City without Jews) in the Arenberg Theatre. In her introduction, Veerle Vanden Daelen stressed the importance of further historical research for lasting remembrance in Antwerp. Volker Timmermann, the Permanent Representative of the German Embassy in Belgium, also visited Kazerne Dossin, laying a wreath at the freight train car in front of the museum in the company of Mechelen’s Mayor Alexander Vandersmissen and Director Tomas Baum.
27
January
2022
Left Behind
27.01.2022On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Kazerne Dossin also presented its ‘Left Behind’ research, which tells the story of Organisation Todt, with a focus on the forced labour of Jewish men from Antwerp in Northern France. The project examines the impact of Organisation Todt on the daily life and chances of survival of Jewish forced labourers and their families who had stayed behind. The research findings have been visualised in three interactive maps, which are publicly accessible.
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10
February
2022
Universal Human Rights
10.02-11.12.2022On 10 February, ‘Universal Human Rights’ was inaugurated. This temporary exhibition introduced visitors to the world of universal human rights. Visitors could learn more about their rights in this three-part exhibition full of interesting facts and inspiring figureheads, which also touched upon difficult dilemmas and pressing current issues. Active custom tours were developed with children and young adults in mind.
13
February
2022
Midday of the Meridian
13.02.2022Halfway through the duration of the guest exhibition ‘Meridian of the heart’, an afternoon event took place with an interview, poetry readings, film and music. Carl De Strycker, the director of the Flemish Poetry Centre, talked to the artist Jan Mulder about his visual journey through Paul Celan’s poems. The poet, writer, and visual artist Akim A.J. Willems read several poems from his collection of poems which was inspired by Paul Celan’s poetry. The programme, which was widely appreciated, also featured a short film and piano music.
27
February
2022
Afternoon book talk ‘Si je reviens un jour’
27.02.2022French journalist Stéphanie Trouillard (France24) visited Kazerne Dossin to talk about her graphic novel ‘Si je reviens un jour…’. The story draws on the letters of Louise Pikovsky, a Jewish girl who was deported to Auschwitz from the Dossin Barracks. Louise wrote these letters to her Latin/Greek teacher. The correspondence ended abruptly on 22 January 1944, the day of her last letter and arrest. Claire Pikovsky, Louise’s cousin, and genealogist Marie Cappart participated in the panel discussion as part of the presentation.
3
March
2022
Whoever saves one life saves the world entire
3.03-3.06.2022After the war many Jewish survivors shared stories about their saviours with the Yad Vashem Institute and the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History in Lithuania. The Vilna Gaon Museum incorporated all these stories into a fascinating travelling exhibition. In the margin of this guest exhibition, the museum hosted a screening on 8 May of ‘Sisters’, a documentary about the life of Dana Pomerants-Mazurkevich. After the screening, Dana and her saviour’s grandson took part in a Zoom discussion. Professor Adolphe Nysenholc, who spent several of his childhood years in hiding, linked the Belgian and Lithuanian stories of citizens who saved Jews.
27
March
2022
Afternoon book talk ‘Transport XX. Bestemming Auschwitz’
27.03.2022Author Mark De Geest talked about ‘Transport XX’, his historic novel which was inspired by the true story of Transport XX which was stopped during World War II thanks to the valiant efforts of three young men. Tomas Baum introduced the book and Viv Wolfs moderated the panel discussion. Actor Vic De Wachter read some excerpts from the book.
29
March
2022
International Database Conference
29-31.03.2022Every year, archivists and researchers who are affiliated with Holocaust memorials and museums across Europe, the United States, and Israel meet to exchange knowledge. During this database conference, they present their ongoing and completed projects. This is also an excellent opportunity to establish or broaden cooperations and test ideas for new projects. In 2022, Kazerne Dossin hosted the conference with Team Collections & Research presenting the ‘Left Behind’ project.
24
April
2022
Heritage Day ‘Right to Education’
24.04.2022The museum developed a new tour through the permanent and temporary exhibitions on the occasion of Flanders Heritage Day, enabling visitors to discover the impact of the Second World War on education and the later Article 26 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the afternoon, Veerle Vanden Daelen interviewed Holocaust survivors Regina Sluszny and Simon Gronowski, who discussed their years in school and how the Second World War had an impact on their access to education.
26
April
2022
Trains and the Holocaust
26.04.2022Kazerne Dossin joined forces with Europalia ‘Trains & Tracks’ and Stichting Auschwitz to organise a conference titled ‘Trains and the Holocaust’. For many decades, trains were a symbol of modernity, but during the Second World War they became an instrument of genocide. The day-long programme featured talks and panel discussions on various aspects of the deportation. With: Nico Wouters (CegeSoma), Frédéric Crahay (Stichting/Fondation Auschwitz), Koen Aerts (Ghent University), Dorien Styven, Laurence Schram and Veerle Vanden Daelen (Kazerne Dossin), Grégory Célerse, Hannes Vanwymelbeke (War Heritage Museum).
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2
June
2022
Foto: Johanna Groß
#StolenMemory
02.06 - 19.06.2022In June, a fold-out container was installed between Kazerne Dossin and the Dossin Barracks. Visitors could discover the #StolenMemory exhibition in and around the container. During the Second World War, the Nazis stole all the personal possessions of their victims. The Arolsen Archive has preserved several thousands of these objects. The foundation also makes a concerted attempt to restitute these ‘stolen mementos’ to the families of victims, among others with this travelling container.
16
June
2022
Ordinary people in times of war
16.06-18.09.2022The guest exhibition ‘Ordinary people in times of war’ consisted of two parts, each by a different comic strip author: ‘Scherven & Littekens’ (Shards & scars’) by Erik de Graaf and ‘Robbedoes – Hoop in bange dagen’ (‘Robbedoes, Hope in fearful days’) by Emile Bravo. Erik De Graaf drew on a family story to explain how radically the lives of ‘ordinary people’ changed during the Second World War. Comic strip fragments by Emile Bravo highlighted how ‘ordinary people’ attempted to survive during the war.
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21
June
2022
Talk ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’
21.06.2022On Tuesday 21 June, the New Zealand author Heather Morris visited Kazerne Dossin. Her début, ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’, became a global best-seller. Heather Morris tells exceptional life stories in the form of a novel. During her talk at Kazerne Dossin, she provided an insight into the fascinating creative process of her novels.
21
September
2022
Commemoration of the transports from Northern France
21.09.2022Kazerne Dossin organised a remembrance event for the victims who were transported from the French Nord-Pas-de-Calais region to camps by way of the Dossin Barracks. Pupils of the Lycée français in Brussels read out the names of the victims in the presence of the French Ambassador to Belgium, Mr Sénémaud. The programme also featured a testimonial and two expert panels.
4
October
2022
Missing Stories
04.10.2022-17.01.2023The Hungarian Cultural Center in Brussels brought the expo ‘Missing Stories’ to Kazerne Dossin. Photographer Ildi Hermann visited Hungarian Jews in New York. She saw where they lived, took the time to take pictures and to listen to their stories. These elderly witnesses often told their story for the first time. These memories are part of Hungarian history and the Holocaust.
8
October
2022
Open Houses
8, 9.10.2022During the Second World War, 25,000 residents of Antwerp became victims of the Nazi regime. Since then, many houses, streets, and neighbourhoods have made an effort to preserve their stories. In October, the public could discover these stories first-hand at about 20 venues. Kazerne Dossin provided input for the event and shared its network. Dorien Styven gave two presentations on Emiel Vos and his foster son Norbert Vos-Obstfeld. Veerle Vanden Daelen discussed Jewish life in Borgerhout and Berchem before, during, and after the Second World War and provided background information for Michel Fischler’s talk about his family history. This story is also featured in the football-themed tour that Kazerne Dossin launched in 2022.
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30
October
2022
Afternoon book talk ‘De draaischijf’
30.10.2022Award-winning Flemish author Tom Lanoye visited Kazerne Dossin to present his historic novel ‘De draaischijf’. During the first panel discussion, Tom Lanoye discussed Lon Landau, together with two historians and a dramatist. Landau was a Jewish set and costume designer who was imprisoned at the Dossin Barracks and features as a character in Lanoye’s novel. During the second panel discussion, Lanoye and the historian Babette Weyns looked at why resistance heroes are largely ignored in Flanders.
8
November
2022
#FakeImages
8.11-10.12.2022In 2022, ‘#FakeImages’, the museum’s temporary exhibition in 2021, became a travelling exhibition. MEPs had the opportunity to learn more about the dangers of stereotypes and the evolution of anti-Semitic imagery over time in the atrium of the Berlaymont building (European Parliament) thanks to this one-month exhibition. At the opening, Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission Coordinator on combating anti-Semitism, and Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President of the European Commission, expressed their support against anti-Semitism, stressing the importance of projects such as ‘#FakeImages’. The exhibition also culminated in a superb publication titled ‘#FakeImages – Unmask the Dangers of Stereotypes’.
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24
November
2022
Portrait Ceremony
24.11.2022In 2022, Kazerne Dossin organised its 10th Portrait Ceremony. On 24 November, 210 newly found photos for the remembrance wall were presented. The names of 78 Jews from Belgium, who were deported from France, were also read out and their portraits revealed. The ceremony highlighted the importance of music for the deportees and the continued importance of searching for photos of these people, year after year. The recently discovered story of a young boy named Aron Luksenberg was also shared at the ceremony.
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18
December
2022
10th anniversary of Kazerne Dossin
18.12.2022On Sunday 18 December, Kazerne Dossin hosted a performance of Let’s Klet’z for 180 guests. This also provided an opportunity to reflect with many of the stakeholders on the importance and relevance of the Memorial, museum and research centre in this historically significant location and to remember the many victims. But the event also reflected on the many achievements and looked ahead at new projects that will only serve to underscore Kazerne Dossin’s mission in the years to come.
Public engagement and education
‘Holocaust, Police, and Human Rights’
In 2022, this police training got a reboot. We organised 71 sessions during the first six months of the year, another 48 during the second half of the year. Aspiring police officers and members of the Belgian Federal and Local Police attended these sessions, which are given in Dutch and in French. A total of 1,768 participants attended the sessions. This year, we adapted the educational approach of the module on Human Rights. Moreover, the training has since been included in the training of aspiring police commissioners and the training programme for chief commissioners.
The training was also offered on two occasions to the trainee diplomats of the Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs and met with a very positive response from participants.
During the second half of the year, the training of 14 police officers to become HPM (Holocaust, Politie en Mensenrechten/Holocaust, Police and Human Rights) coaches also started.
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‘Polarisation, a threat or an opportunity for police?’
In 2022, the training programme on ‘Polarisation: a threat or an opportunity for police’ was also offered in the various police academies. Twenty sessions were organised for 267 participants from the integrated police forces. This year, the training programme was included in the introductory week of the training programme for aspiring chief commissioners. Two sessions were organised on demand during the programme.
Wij-Zij Netwerk / We-Them Network
After the pandemic, the Wij-Zij Netwerk resumed its activities in April 2021, following the approval by the cabinet of Flemish minister Bart Somers of the project grant for the network’s further development. Thanks to this grant, the network could meet again and achieve its ambitions in terms of combating online and offline polarisation.
In 2022, the network was up and running, organising five study days and several webinars. Topics included: Decolonisation in education, Online polarisation and gamification, and Decolonisation of public space: a comparative study of Flanders and the Netherlands. Every month, a video was published to the restyled website, in addition to educational information and articles. A newsletter was also sent to more than 1,000 subscribers. The network provided support for the development of a podcast and organised workshops (on discussion techniques, framing, brave spaces…) and interactive talks.
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Bijzonder Comité voor Herinneringseducatie / Special Committee for Remembrance Education
In 2022, Simon Schepers, who had been the committee’s coordinator for several years, resigned. In June, Caroline Walters, who recently obtained her MA in History, came on board.
In 2021, the Bijzonder Comité voor Herinneringseducatie (BCH, Special Committee for Remembrance Education) provided a first draft for the new theme page on ‘Holocaust and the Second World War’, which will be completed in 2023. An interesting page on the same theme has already been published in the Flemish Archief voor Onderwijs (an audiovisual database for educators).
The network also cooperates with several Belgian external partners, including the Aurore Ruyffelaere Fund (managed by the King Baudouin Foundation), the Flemish Peace Institute, the CANON Culture Unit, the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library… The BCH’s mission is complementary to the mission of the Aurore Ruyffelaere Fund, which launches a call for projects and provides financial grants and support for school projects in West and East Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region, checking whether they meet the criteria as formulated in the BCH’s guideline. This past year, the BCH gave one talk about ‘Remembrance Education in Primary Education’ to students of the Odisee teacher training programme in Sint-Niklaas.
This past year, an interesting exchange took place between the Committee and the committee of the Flemish Canon. The BCH invited the committee to present the first draft version of this Flemish Canon. The pleasant exchange led to various meetings and some partnerships.
The committee also met on several occasions to guarantee the project’s continuity. These meetings were regularly combined with an educational activity, such as a guided tour of the exhibition ‘Universal Human Rights’ at Kazerne Dossin and the exhibition ‘For civilisation: The Great War in the Middle East 1914-1923’ of the In Flanders Field Museum. The committee members also attended a talk by Karel Van Nieuwenhuyse on the ‘Decolonisation of history in secondary education and historical culture’. The plenary meetings were also combined with training. Committee members attended I Like Media’s workshop on ‘Creative concepts for social media’ to stay up to date with digitalisation and social networks. Social media activation and promotion continues to be an important tool in this professional field.
The network also welcomed a new partner. The BCH is honoured to welcome the Brussels-based House of European History. Currently the network consists of 21 partners, including Flemish museums, representatives of Flemish education networks and educational organisations.
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Justice and football educational programmes
Individuals who have committed a (mild form of) hate crime, discrimination, or racism can voluntarily follow an educational programme at Kazerne Dossin. This pilot project was launched at the end of 2021 in partnership with the office of the Antwerp Public Prosecutor. Similar educational programmes were developed for the supporters of professional football clubs in partnership with the Pro League.
In the spring of 2022, seven guides were recruited and trained for these individual training programmes. Five of them were employed in the context of this project. Suzan Langenberg of Diversity developed a two-day training on discussion techniques for this project. The programme’s insights were compiled in a manual, which includes fictional cases with model tours. Additional research was done for the football programme, to ensure that tours were designed for this specific context. Employees of Kazerne Dossin visited seven professional football clubs and attended four matches in the Jupiler Pro League, along with guides. The life stories of deported Jewish footballers and football fans were reconstructed, and additional football-related imagery was collected, in collaboration with the Collections & Research team and various external (sports) historians. Finally the guides also took two crash courses: one on justice and the legislation on discrimination by a retired justice of the peace; and one about the football world by Pro League employees. Two intervision sessions were also organised after the guides coached their first learning pathways.
All the parties involved (guides, interns…) signed a confidentiality agreement to protect participants’ anonymity.
In autumn 2022, the partnerships of Kazerne Dossin in the worlds of justice and football were further developed, following the signing of partnership agreements with the Royal Football Association and the public prosecutor’s offices in Limburg and Leuven. The number of alternative measures was also increased, with two additional tours that can be booked preventatively. Besides individual learning pathways, Kazerne Dossin also offers a football-themed group tour. ‘Buitenspel’ is an interactive football pathway that young players can follow with their family or team following incidents in the youth football league. A separate manual and additional educational material was developed specifically for this purpose with the life stories of three Jewish families with a football link as the common thread. In the margin of this manual, fourteen guides followed training. The ambition is to offer learning pathways for young people as part of the cooperation with the FPS Justice.
In 2022, there were 8 individual learning pathways, of which 7 were given the green light. A total of 147 visitors took the football-themed group tour, including 3 professional clubs (32 people) as an alternative measure. In 2022, 22 visitors followed the ‘Buitenspel’ pathway, including 1 family (5 participants) as an alternative measure.
Finally, Kazerne Dossin and the Pro League also worked to prevent polarisation in the football world. In March, representatives of all Belgian professional football clubs (36 participants) followed the two-day training programme on ‘A good sport approach to we-them in football’. Based on input from this training programme, a manual with the same name, in three languages (Dutch/French/English) was developed. This manual was introduced to all the board members of all the professional football clubs during the General Meeting of the Pro League.
During the Facts to Act festival 2022, the Hannah Arendt Institute and Kazerne Dossin organised a panel discussion on ‘Sport is emotie: waarom beroert (kijken naar) sport ons zo?’ (Sport is all about emotion: why does (watching) sport have such an emotional impact on us?). Speakers included former professional footballer Paul Beloy, Hebe Schaillée (VUB), Jacco van Sterkenburg (Erasmus University Rotterdam), and Marleen Van Gucht (KV Mechelen). Imke Courtois (VRT/Sporza) was the moderator.
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Directorate General for Penitentiary Facilities
DG EPI (Directoraat Generaal Penitentiaire Inrichtingen) guarantees a lawful, safe, humane, and individualised execution of custodial sentences and measures with a view to prisoners’ optimal return to the community. It develops an innovative penitentiary policy, which puts inmates front and centre, and is founded on good practices in the field, as well as professionalism, experience, and expertise. The detention model strikes a balance between active and passive safety, taking inmates’ and employees’ rights and duties into account in addition to workforce integrity.
Kazerne Dossin’s social/educational project permanently reflects on and enforces respect for human rights, in which citizenship, democratic resilience, and the defence of individual basic freedoms are key.
The purpose of this structural partnership is to generate impact in the field and added value for society. The partnership is founded on knowledge and expertise sharing and respect for each other’s company culture.
The ‘train the trainer’ programmes for coaches ended in the spring of 2022. The Dutch-language training programmes for employees of the Directorate General for Correctional Facilities started soon after. During the second half of the year, 10 training sessions were organised for 120 participants.
Talks and group training
In 2022, employees gave talks, classes, and training sessions on a wide range of very different themes to groups of students, pupils, professionals, and sociocultural associations.
Guides at Kazerne Dossin
After two difficult pandemic years, the guides at Kazerne Dossin were able to resume their activities. Several groups joined guided tours of the permanent and temporary exhibition (‘Universal. Human Rights’). Both the visitors and the guides were happy that the museum reopened after a long hiatus.
But this past year was also an intensive year in terms of training for the guides of Kazerne Dossin. In January 2022, 20 applicants started their training to become guides for children and young adults, with 17 completing the programme. In September 2022, 14 guides started further training to become guides for all target audiences: children, young adults, and adults. They embarked on a 10-month intensive training programme, along with 10 new candidates. That way the pool of guides can grow in 2023, with newly trained guides.
- # guides in 2022: 64
- # guides in 2023: 77
The remuneration of self-employed guides was also increased in 2022. Since the museum’s opening in 2010, their fees had not been adapted. As a result, they were no longer in line with the market. Half of the guides at Kazerne Dossin are volunteers. Different rules apply to their remuneration.
After feedback from visitors about the importance of a serene atmosphere in the museum’s galleries, we decided to reduce the number of tours per time slot. The situation for visitors and guides is more peaceful as a result. In 2023, we will evaluate this decision but for now the response is positive. This, in combination with support for group visits without a guide, has made a huge difference in terms of the quality of the museum visit.
Finally, we were also able to organise a number of teambuilding activities again in 2022. In January, we hosted a New Year’s drink. In September, the guides visited Antwerp, with a guided tour of the Jewish neighbourhood, followed by dinner.
The guides voiced their appreciation for this initiative in their feedback:
This group tour was very pleasant and instructive! How nice of Kazerne Dossin to organise this. You can count on me next year!
From workshop to Simon’s story
Simon’s workshop was overhauled in 2022. The offer was evaluated and adapted to provide an ever better welcome to the museum and memorial for our youngest visitors. The rest of the educational offer was also evaluated. The results of these evaluations will be processed further in 2023.
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‘Who were the victims of the National Socialists?’
In early 2022, the Max Mannheimer Center and Euroclio launched a call for the project ‘Who were the victims of the National Socialists?’. Five teams from five European countries participated. The aim was to enable young people to gain a better understanding of contemporary forms of discrimination by conducting research into the victims of the National Socialists. The participants worked according to the principles of Place and Project Based Learning to hone their research skills and increase their engagement and resilience. All these projects were combined in a toolbox that will be available for distribution from March 2023.
In Belgium, Kazerne Dossin and LAB Gedreven Onderwijs in Puurs-Sint-Amands formed a team. A group of 21 pupils researched the persecution of Jews, Sinti, and Roma in Belgium, as part of a project titled ‘Bringing voices alive and becoming one’, relying on primary sources for their research. The result of their efforts can be seen here.
Multi-perspective Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Europe (MuRem)
The ‘Multi-Perspective Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Europe’ (MuRem) project strives to build a network and strengthen multi-perspectivity and interdisciplinarity in European Holocaust education, taking the diversity of memory cultures and their consequences on today’s society into account.
In November, the kick-off took place in Berlin. The event focused on the perspectives and experiences with multiperspectivity in European Holocaust education, sharing experiences from practice. The European survey on this topic was also discussed. This will be distributed in early 2023.
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Museum shop
In 2022, the manager of Kazerne Dossin’s museum shop organised five book talks on recent and not so recent publications, with Belgian and international authors. The executive board of Kazerne Dossin provided the necessary background information and framework for this. A separate book corner with adapted literature and non-fiction was established in the margin of temporary and guest exhibitions. The shop continues to invest in a combination of relevant works and recent publications. The children and young adults section is always up to date. Revenue remained stable compared with 2021.
External events
The pandemic continued to have an impact on the organisation of external events until the end of May 2022. From then on, requests for external events poured in, generating rental revenue for Kazerne Dossin.
Read moreInternships
In 2022, the Public Outreach & Education coached 4 interns as part of various internships. One of these interns went on to become the BCH’s new coordinator.
International visitors
In 2022, several of our peers from various organisations, who were interested in learning more about the activities of the Public engagement and education department, visited the museum and memorial, including colleagues from Falstad in Norway, from the Pilecki Institute in Poland, and the Vught and Westerbork camps in the Netherlands.
Collections & Research
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Bequests
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Publications
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New photographs
for the portrait wall
for the portrait wall
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Digital requests for
the research centre
the research centre
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New collections in the digital image bank
Bequests
Reisdorf-Eskenazi Collection
Joseph Reisdorf, a doctor who was not Jewish himself, established a clandestine hospital in 1942 on rue d’Or in Brussels. Here he treated resistance fighters, Jews who had gone into hiding, and people who refused to go work as forced labourers. The hospital also became the Turkish-Jewish Eskenazi family’s hiding place. The Eskenazi’s daughter Claire worked as a nurse in the hospital. Joseph and Claire got married after the war. In 2022, their daughter Liliane donated the post-war banner of the Organisation sanitaire belge résistante, the resistance network which her father had founded, to Kazerne Dossin. Kazerne Dossin also digitalised 65 documents and 47 photos from the family archive.
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Turfkruijer-Meljado Collection
Marc Turfkruijer and Bertha Meljado married in 1925. They were both very athletic. Marc founded the Jewish sports and drama club Blauw-Wit and was a reference in the Premier League. One of Bertha’s brothers was also a referee. Her sister and two other brothers were excellent football players. Her brother Sam was the captain of the Germinal Beerschot team. Bertha, meanwhile, was a talented korfball player. Most of Marc’s and Bertha’s family members were deported during the war. They and their son Salomon went into hiding in Antwerp, surviving the war. Patricia and Anne Turfkruijer, Marc and Bertha’s granddaughters, donated a digital copy of the family archive in the margin of the football learning pathway that Kazerne Dossin developed.
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Andrée Geulen Collection
On 31 May 2022, Andrée Geulen, the last living associate of the Jewish Defence Committee, died. The committee was able to hide and save more than 2,000 Jewish children in Belgium under the German occupation. Over a two-year period, Andrée accompanied hundreds of children to a safe house as a courier. In early 2022, she and her daughters Anne and Catherine Herscovici consented to the digitalisation of two photo albums. The images were added to the existing Andrée Geulen Collection. Besides the albums, the team also scanned investigation files with other relevant documents, which Andrée compiled as part of her research into the children who had gone into hiding.
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Anna Slomovic Collection
From February 1943 onwards, nine-year old Anna Slomovic from Brussels went into hiding on the farm of the Martens-Devoghelare family in Ursel near Aalter. She was baptised in April. That same day, she also did her first communion. Her parents and her younger brother who were in hiding elsewhere travelled to Ursel especially for the occasion. The entire Slomovic family survived the war and emigrated to the United States. In 2022, Kazerne Dossin helped Philippe De Gusseme, the grandson of the Martens-Devoghelares, to get in touch with Anna. Philippe subsequently donated nine original photos of Anna, which were made on the family farm, as well as a commemorative card of her communion to Kazerne Dossin.
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Jenny Birnbaum Collection
On 31 July, Jenny Birnbaum was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau on her own on Transport XXVI. The fifteen-year-old miraculously survived her deportation. Jenny never told anyone about what happened. Upon her death on 7 June 2022, she only left a written testimonial, in addition to some documents including two drawings she made in the camp and a letter she wrote when she was liberated, in addition to a few small brooches that she found in Birkenau and which she used to barter for food. Jenny’s daughter and foster daughter, Brigit and Manon Camberlin, donated all the originals to Kazerne Dossin in November 2022.
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Mandler-Handl Collection
In 1938, Fritz Mandler and his wife Rosa Handl fled from Austria to Belgium with their new-born Henri. He took his leather tool bag with him. After being arrested in November 1942, Fritz and Rosa were employed as Jewish staffers in the Dossin Barracks. Fritz’s leather bag played an instrumental role during his captivity: he used it to pass on tools to Jews who were to be deported so they could escape from the train. On the night of 3 September 1944, Fritz and Rosa watched as the Dossin Barracks were liberated. They were reunited with their son Henri a few days later. He survived the war after going into hiding. In 2022, Henri donated his father’s original tool bag as well as digital copies of photos from the family album to Kazerne Dossin.
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Gemeiner-Lewy Collection
Moise Josef (Joske) Gemeiner was a furrier, with a shop in Antwerp’s Provinciestraat. He built a small desk, which he used to do his administration and keep his ledgers. Joske did not survive the war. He was deported with Transport XVII and never returned from Auschwitz-Birkenau. His wife Rosy Lewy and son Salomon Gemeiner survived the war, after going into hiding. In 2022, Liliane Van Nynatten, Salomon’s widow, donated her father-in-law’s desk to Kazerne Dossin. It will be added to the Gemeiner-Lewy Collection, which also comprises photos and false ID documents.
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Itzkowic-Goldberg Collection
In May 1940, Salomon Itzkowic was arrested by the Belgian authorities as a ‘suspect’ and transferred to the Saint-Cyprien internment camp in Northern France. His wife Esther Goldberg stayed behind in Antwerp, alone with their three children. Achim (11 yrs), Berthold (8 yrs) and Arthur (1 year old). Salomon and Esther kept in touch, writing letters and postcards. Salomon was able to escape from the camp and fled to the UK. After the war, he went in search of his wife and sons. They were all transferred to the camps with Transport XIII and murdered. Salomon remarried and had a fourth child: David Itzkowic. In 2022, David donated digital copies of their correspondence and some photos to Kazerne Dossin.
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Elise Leekens Collection
During the war, Elise Leekens lived in Van den Nestlei in Antwerp, where she sometimes helped her neighbours, a Jewish family that was in hiding in the attic of her building, bringing them food. In all likelihood, this was the family of diamond dealer Wolf Leib Richter, his wife Feigel Ritterman, and their daughters Anny and Irène. When the family left the building, they gave Elise Leekens a trunk, engraved with the initials L.R., with all their possessions in it, for safekeeping. Wolf Leib and Feigel were arrested during the major raids on Belgian Jews on the night of 3 September 1943. They were subsequently deported from the Dossin Barracks and murdered. Elise Leekens moved, taking the trunk with her. After the war, Anny and Irène came to collect the contents of the trunk prior to their departure to the United States. Elise Leekens always kept the empty trunk. Her daughter Christiane Van Gaever donated it to Kazerne Dossin. Elise lost touch with the Richter daughters.
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Grace Winter Collection
Grace and her mother Czypa Kaliszer succeeded in fleeing from Antwerp to Lyon. They attempted to cross the Franco-Swiss border on two occasions, succeeding in their endeavour with the help of a niece. Grace’s father Adolf became a forced labourer and was deported to Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of Organisation Todt. Adolf was able to escape from the camp with a ladder that he built himself, after which he managed to board a work train. He crossed the Swiss border on foot and ended up in a prison in Neuchâtel. The family was reunited in Clarens at the end of February 1943. In 2022, Grace Winter donated fragments from her father’s wartime journal, his map of France with indications, four family photos, a yellow Jewish star, and copies of the family’s personal files - as preserved in the Swiss Bundesarchiv - to Kazerne Dossin.
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Kichelmacher-Edel Collection
After the war, the Kichelmacher and Edel families were united following the marriage of Isaac (Moszek Icek) Kichelmacher and Bella (Bertha) Edel. In the summer of 1942, Isaac was transferred to Dannes-Caumiers as an Organisation Todt forced labourer. On 31 October 1942, he was deported to Auschwitz through Mechelen. Isaac survived the death camps and the death marches and was liberated at Theresienstadt. After the war, Isaac worked for a furrier, where he met Bella. Her father Mordechai had immigrated to Belgium from Russia and had five children. During the war, Bella and her brother Charles had fled to Switzerland. Isaac Kichelmacher and Bella Edel married in 1946 had twins. In 1951, the family emigrated to Canada. One of their granddaughters, Lesley Greenwald, donated digital copies of 84 family photos and 5 documents to Kazerne Dossin in 2022.
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Henri Oerlemans Collection
Henri Oerlemans was just a teenager during the war. He spent most of his formative years in Jewish circles. During the occupation, Henri witnessed all his friends and their families disappearing until his neighbourhood was almost deserted. After the war, he drew on his emotions to create wooden sculptures, such as ‘Myriam’ and ‘Sylvain’, which were modelled after his Jewish friends. Myriam was a fragile, skinny, sweet girl. Henri imagined her in the winter of 1943 during roll call in Auschwitz. Sylvain lived in the same house as Henri. In all likelihood, he and his parents died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. A traumatised Henri gave these children a new lease of life in his sculptures. In 2022, his widow Maria Foncke donated the wooden sculptures of Myriam and Sylvain to Kazerne Dossin.
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Eli Ringer Collection & David “Doov” Stein Collection
Eli Ringer was born during the occupation. He survived the war in Antwerp, together with his mother, brothers, and sisters. His parents obtained Paraguayan identity papers, which offered some form of protection. Eli’s mother Liane Pappenheim provided kosher food to Jews who had gone into hiding in St.-Erasmus hospital. When the Germans arrested Eli’s father Salomon in February 1943, he was not sent to Auschwitz because of his documents. Salomon spent time in various internierungslager. Following an exchange of prisoners, he ended up in Switzerland, after which he was transferred to an UNRRA camp in Algeria. Liane launched campaigns to help Jewish children in need in Antwerp and was the first volunteer teacher at the Jesode Hatora school. After returning to Belgium, Salomon helped to rebuild the Jesode Hatora School and the Machsike Hadas community. In 2022, his son Eli Ringer donated digital copies of 133 photos and 120 of his parents’ documents to Kazerne Dossin.
After the liberation, allied soldiers visited the Ringer-Pappenheim family, including an American soldier called David ("Doov") Stein, who spent many months passing on information from families in the United States and their surviving relatives in Antwerp, obtaining assistance for Jews in the port city, and providing support for and helping to revive the orthodox Jewish community in Antwerp. In 2022, Shifra Stein-Stahl, David (‘Doov’) Stein’s daughter, donated copies of several hundreds of letters which her father had written to family members and friends while stationed in Belgium to Kazerne Dossin.
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Donations to the library
1,182 new books were added to the library. At the end of 2022, our library had a collection of 10,276 books. We have also created an online catalogue, making it available to the public through our website.
Wouter Van de Velde Collection
Jessy and Ronny Van de Velde created the ‘Wouter van de Velde Collection, making a major donation to the library of the research centre at Kazerne Dossin in memory of their son. The donation consists of 9 boxes with hundreds of books and magazines about the culture and history of the Roma in Europe. The persecution and extermination of the Roma is one of the most important subjects in this collection, which is currently being inventoried and will become publicly accessible in 2023.
Ignace Lesnicki Collection
Bea Van Aert, Ignace Lesnicki’s widow, donated 84 books, of which 57 were added to the library. Doubles were sold, after obtaining the consent of Mrs Van Aert.
Maria Schits Collection
Rose-Marie Verbeek, a retired notary public, executed the last wishes of her client Maria Schits. She donated 40 books in the name of Maria Schits, which have been added to the library. Doubles were sold, after obtaining the consent of Notary Verbeek.
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Physical archive
In 2022, the Collections & Research team concentrated on optimising the storage conditions in the climate-controlled archive. Donations that were received after 2013 were repacked according to the current international archival standards: individual documents and photos were stored in acid-free covers and stored in custom boxes. Following the repacking of originals, the available archive cabinets were optimised, freeing up space for new donations. All the boxes were labelled with acid-free labels.
During the works, inventories were also drawn up for earlier donations from the ‘Regine Beer’ archive, the ‘Rosine De Dijn’ research archive, the ‘Florence Matteazzi’ research archive, the ‘galerie Lammel’ archive, the ‘Comité Hommage aux Sauveurs 1980’ archive and the ‘Mémorial national aux Martyrs juifs de Belgique’ archive.
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Image database
In 2022, 22 collections were added to the image database. This included archives that were recently donated by researchers and family members of deportees, as well as older collections which had been in Kazerne Dossin’s possession for several years already. The family ties of donors were also taken into account. In 2022, Jenny Birnbaum’s family donated unique items and documents, which were immediately made publicly accessible through the database. The collection of Jenny’s brother Joseph, which was entrusted to Kazerne Dossin in 2000, was also added to the database, to supplement it.
Some of the 22 collections that have been included in the database are quite sizable but contain lots of privacy-sensitive data. Due to privacy legislation, we were only able to provide a description and one representative image in the database. The 22 collections that were added thus jointly consist of 752 scans of 545 documents, including objects, documents, photos and testimonials. Each item has been individually described. By end 2022, the image database contained 1,025,559 publicly accessible images. This past year, 10,644 unique visitors used our database.
In 2022, we also invested in the transition to our image database 2.0. A lot of preparatory work was done, including adaptations to the persons database behind the image database. We also tested the transfer of existing collections to the new image database website. The actual transfer is scheduled for 2023.
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Digitalisation
In 2022, our digitalisation expert Gunter Vandeplas scanned 665 files (57,423 scans) from the Verwaltung Müller collection, a German administration that seized income from Jewish property. The collection consists of individual files for each owner and property that was administered under German occupation. After the war, the files were transferred to a receiver, which tracked down owners or heirs and made arrangements for the partial reimbursement of income. This process will be completed in the course of 2023.
Research
The Antwerp specificity: In 2022, Kazerne Dossin expanded the scope of the Left Behind project to include the impact of other Antwerp Holocaust-related events on the Antwerp deportation figures. The results of the Left Behind project revealed that deportations of Jewish forced labourers to Northern France and their families in Antwerp was much higher than the Antwerp average. In 2022, Kazerne Dossin studied whether the deportation figures of Antwerp Jews who were deported to Limburg at the end of 1940 were also much higher than the Antwerp average to further explain the deportation figures in the port city. An article on this research is currently under preparation.
Laurence Schram further developed the database of Jews and Roma who were deported from the Dossin Barracks and added all the ages of the deportees in preparation of the future ‘Every name counts’ project.
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 is in charge of coordinating the content on the EHRI Portal. As part of this, employees undertook working visits to several archives in Israel and Canada (end of May-early June and November). Representatives of Kazerne Dossin actively took part in three General Partner Meetings (17-18 May in Prague, 7-9 June in Amsterdam, and 13-14 December in Brussels) in addition to following a workshop on ‘borderlands’ in Bratislava on 3 and 4 May. On 13 and 14 September, several of the consortium’s representatives travelled to Mechelen in the context of the EHRI partnership for working meetings on thematic research and linking original and copy archives in the EHRI Portal. In 2022, Kazerne Dossin also welcomed two International EHRI Fellows, namely Mykola Makhortykh and Frank van Doorn.
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)
The IHRA organised two plenary sessions under the Swedish presidency: one in Stockholm in June, the other in Gothenburg in November. Veerle Vanden Daelen participated in both plenaries, as a member of the ‘Academic Working Group’ and the ‘Committee on Holocaust, Genocide and Crimes against Humanity’. After the Stockholm plenary, she took over as coordinator of the ‘IHRA Monitoring Access to Archives Project’, which presented the ‘IHRA Guidelines for Identifying Relevant Documentation for Holocaust Research, Education and Remembrance’ on 23 March during an online launch which she also moderated (the guidelines, the award-winning short introductory film and the recording of the launch event can be found here).
Partnerships
Kazerne Dossin provided content for a podcast titled ‘De Kunst van het Verdwijnen’ (‘The art of disappearing’) a production of Bart Van Nuffelen. The podcast received lots of praise. It is available through VRT MAX. Kazerne Dossin also provided content for an episode on Simon Gronowski in the podcast ‘Zelfs als de wereld verdwijnt’ (Even if the world disappears’), part of the ‘Buurman is Vuurman’ series. Buurman is the Flemish band of Geert Verdickt. Their new album was released in May 2022. They toured Belgian theatres in autumn 2022.
The intensive cooperation with the City of Antwerp also continued. The Leopold Flam archive was examined, in consultation with Letterenhuis Antwerp, to check whether it included documents on his internment in the Dossin Barracks. Kazerne Dossin and the ‘Museum aan de Stroom’ (MAS) pursued the cooperation which they launched in 2020. The team provided input, expertise, and items for the new exhibition on the Second World War, which is set to open in the MAS in the autumn of 2023. The City of Antwerp also relied on the assistance of Kazerne Dossin for the organisation of the ‘Open Huizen’ remembrance weekend. Several employees gave talks in the homes of Jewish deportees.
Together with Didier Pasamonik and Caroline François, Laurence Schram played a part in the preparatory research for the exhibition ‘Spirou dans la tourmente de la Shoah’ at the Mémorial de la Shoah. From 7 until 9 October 2022, Laurence Schram accompanied a group of adult visitors from the ‘Centre communautaire et laïc juif’ on their study trip to Poland. She was their guide as they visited the ghetto of Krakow, the Belgian pavilion in Auschwitz, and Birkenau.
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 working group on ‘Sustainable Publishing of Metadata’. As such, Kazerne Dossin also participates in the annual meeting that was organised online in 2022.
Portrait Ceremony
On 24 November 2022, Kazerne Dossin organised its annual portrait ceremony. Traditionally, descendants from all over the world gather in the museum to attend the ceremony. The recently found photos of deportees are shown and their names read out. In 2022, Kazerne Dossin once again welcomed many guests. The ceremony highlighted the role of music in the life of deportees. Violinist Guido De Neve provided the musical interludes. The ceremony focused in particular on the story of Aron Luksenberg. Jo Peeters, the curator of the Huis van het Belgisch-Franse Verzet (a resistance museum) was able to demonstrate in his research that Aron was not killed in Auschwitz. Instead he was able to escape from Transport XX and died in Belgium in 1950. Six students of Atheneum Busleyden read out the names of the 210 new portraits that were added to the remembrance wall, in addition to the names of 78 Belgians who were deported from France. Jess De Gruyter was the cameraman on this occasion. The online ceremony had 180 views.
Read moreInterview project
Following the easing of pandemic measures, the interview project resumed. Team Collections & Research was able to rely on an enthusiastic team of volunteers for this project, recording the stories of six eyewitnesses. One such eyewitness was a non-Jewish Antwerpian with relevant memories about the war years and the Jewish community. Two of the remaining five eyewitnesses spent the war in Belgium, the three others lived abroad. Kazerne Dossin also strives to capture the testimonials of Holocaust survivors who moved to Belgium after the war, to preserve their stories for future research.
Internships with coaching
Every year, Kazerne Dossin invests in the transfer of (practical) knowledge to students. In 2022, the Collections & Research team welcomed an intern of the University of Caen (France). The student worked with the permanent team over a six-month period, focussing on drawing up collection descriptions for donations predating 2013. The item descriptions that were drawn up at the time were reviewed for each donor, after which they were combined in a contextualising and synthesising description at collection level. The trainee also verified the related digital files, which date from before 2013. The intern also assisted with archive management. Older donations were analysed together with the archivists and subsequently repackaged according to the current standards.
Talks and conferences
Laurence Schram, “Au nom du moindre mal : les autorités belges face au judéocide”, European Conference: L’Europe de l’Ouest face à la Shoah, Mémorial de la Shoah, Paris, 3-4 April 2022.
Laurence Schram, “Deportation from the Dossin barracks 1942-1944”, Europalia Trains & Tracks – Trains and the Holocaust, Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen, 26 April 2022.
Laurence Schram, “Auschwitz-Birkenau, une histoire de femmes”, Patrimoine, un outil de mémoire, d’identité et d’histoire, Centre national de l’audiovisuel, Dudelange, 14-15 May 2022.
Laurence Schram, “Le judéocide en Belgique”, Formation du personnel pénitentiaire, Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen, 19 May 2022.
Laurence Schram, “Fake Images. Eine Ausstellung im Museum Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen”, Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung, TU Berlin ∙ Deutsches Historisches Museum ∙ Stiftung Topographie des Terrors, Berlin, 15-16 September 2022.
Laurence Schram, “Préparation au voyage Cracovie-Auschwitz-Birkenau”, CCLJ, Brussels, 28 September 2022.
Laurence Schram, “L’Église belge face à la Shoah : entre silence et résistance”, Colloque européen ‘À la Grâce de Dieu’, Mémorial de la Shoah, Paris, 16 October 2022.
Laurence Schram, “The grey zone: the Association of Jews in Belgium”, Seminar Four: Six Decades after Hilberg and Five Decades after Trunk: A New Analytical Comparative Framework for the Study of Jewish Councils, International Meeting Lessons & Legacies, Centre nationale de l’audiovisuel, Ottawa, 12-14 November 2022.
Laurence Schram, “Dossin vu par les artistes”, Formation des guides, Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen, 24 November 2022.
Dorien Styven, “Access to Holocaust archives. The privacy of survivors versus the right to commemorate”, study day UCLouvain: Un Dossier pour se (re)construire? Archives et enjeux d’identité, 18e journée d’archives, Louvain-la-Neuve, 24 May 2022.
Dorien Styven, “Migratie en herdenking: de dossiers vreemdelingenpolitie en de Holocaust”, study day Belgian State Archives: “Vreemdelingenzaken” – Migratie in het naoorlogse België (1944-jaren 80), Research / Archives, Brussels, 24 March 2022.
Dorien Styven, “Left Behind: the deportation rate of obligatory slave labourers and their families”, Europalia Trains & Tracks – Trains and the Holocaust, Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen, 26 April 2022.
Talks and conferences
Veerle Vanden Daelen, “Antwerp and its Jewish Community over the Long 20th Century: (Forced) Migration and Flight, Culture and Economy, Crisis and Reconstruction”, lecture at Urban History Weeks “Cities & Crisis”, 2022-23, University of Antwerp, 1 December 2022.
Veerle Vanden Daelen, “Micro-Encounters of Orthodox Jews in Immediate Post-War Antwerp”, Panel “The Micro-Encounter and Expanding Histories of Liberation”, Presentation at the Lessons & Legacies Conference, Ottawa, 14 November 2022.
Veerle Vanden Daelen, Panel discussion: Archives, digital technologies, networking and public interaction, ‘Connected Histories. Memories and Narratives of the Holocaust in Digital Space (#connectedhistories)’, First EHRI-AT-Conference hosted by the Department of Contemporary History at the University of Innsbruck and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies, 23 May 2022.
Dorien Styven & Veerle Vanden Daelen, “Left Behind: Weinig bekende verhalen over de vervolging van de Antwerpse Joden”. Evening talk at the Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp, 12 May 2022.
Veerle Vanden Daelen, “Tracks and Traces of Deportation” as part of the “Roundtable on the representation of trains and stations in Holocaust memory”, Europalia Trains & Tracks – Trains and the Holocaust, Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen, 26 April 2022.
Veerle Vanden Daelen & Frank Uiterwaal, “Challenges and benefits for all, the EHRI Portal engaging with non-academic small institutions”, presentation at the ENRIITC Your Industry Outreach: Workshop for Social Sciences and Humanities, organised on Eventbrite/Zoom, 11 March 2022.
Publications
Schram Laurence, “De la persécution à l’extermination: le sort tragique des Juifs et des Roms”, in: Revue Belgica, Brussels, 2022, p. 22-27.
Schram Laurence, “Belgique”, in: Valbousquet Nina & François Caroline (dir.), À la grâce de Dieu” : les églises et la Shoah, Mémorial de la Shoah, Paris, 2022, p. 52-53.
Schram Laurence, “La persécution anti-juive en Belgique”, in: Pasamonik Didier & François Caroline (dir.), Spirou dans la tourmente de la Shoah, Dupuis, Paris, 2022, p. 64-69.
Schram Laurence, “Concept and museography in Kazerne Dossin – Bringing the history of an SS transit camp to a museum”, in: Von Wrochem Olivier (dir.), Deportationen, Dokumentieren und Ausstellen – Neue Konzepte der Visualisierung von Shoah und Porajmos, Hamburg, 2022, p. 83-102.
Styven Dorien & Vanden Daelen Veerle, “Zurückgelassen: Auswirkungen der Zwangsarbeit bei der Organisation Todt in Nordfrankreich auf die Verfolgung der Jüdinnen und Juden in Antwerpen”, in: Christine Schindler & Wolfgang Schellenbacher (ed.), Delogiert und ghettoisiert. Jüdinnen und Juden vor der Deportation (Jahrbuch des DöW), 2022, p. 205-227.
Styven Dorien & Vanden Daelen Veerle, “Jodenvervolging in Antwerpen: Een specifieke casus”, Belgium WWII (Belgian State Archives – Cegesoma), 15 August 2022.
Styven Dorien, “Access to Holocaust archives. The privacy of survivors versus the right to commemorate”, in: Véronique Fillieux, Aurore François, Géraldine Mathieu and Marie Van Eeckenrode (ed.), Un dossier pour se (re)construire? Archives et enjeux d’identités, Capsae, 2022 (2), p. 97-122.
Vanden Daelen Veerle, ‘Inleiding’, in: Anna Grünfeld-Landau & Nuphar Nevo, De Stem van Anna. Het verhaal van een Antwerps meisje tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Brussel: Stichting Auschwitz (2022), p. 9-11.
Vanden Daelen Veerle & Schram Laurence, “The making of #FakeImages”, in: Kazerne Dossin, #FakeImages – Unmask the Dangers of Stereotypes, Berlin: Metropol Verlag (2022), p.104-107.
Communication and external relations
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Unique visitors to the website
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Followers on social media
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Press articles
Website and social media
In 2022, Kazerne Dossin launched a new website with a contemporary, serene look, which is designed to be more user-friendly. The Memorial, #FakeImages, and Auschwitz.camp websites attracted 70,486 unique visitors in 2022.
In 2022, the share of followers of Kazerne Dossin grew by 6% (11,200 followers) following the posting of 100 stories, posts and tweets on social media. The presence of the museum and memorial grew significantly on Instagram in particular, extending social media reach to about 333,000 people.
Press
In 2022, Kazerne Dossin was featured in the press 805 times: 142 times in newspapers, 66 times in a magazine, 554 times online and 43 times in a dispatch from a press agency. The museum and memorial drew more attention during the months of April and November. In April, football club Union St Gilles visited Kazerne Dossin as part of the new football-themed tour. In November, attention focussed on the Portrait Ceremony and the press event of the Pro League in Kazerne Dossin. Journalists were also interested in the temporary exhibition ‘Universal Human Rights, the educational offer, the ‘Left Behind’ research…
De Nieuwe Maan, Mechelen, November 2022
Employees were asked to share their expertise on several occasions, during interviews or reports and podcasts of media or institutions:
- On 27 January (International Holocaust Remembrance Day), Veerle Vanden Daelen gave an interview during Radio 1 ‘De Wereld Vandaag’ on the ‘Left Behind’ project.
- On 30 April 2022, the museum and the memorial were featured in a tourism programme on La Une, called ‘Les Ambassadeurs’. Laurence Schram gave advice. The programme was broadcast on several occasions and can be viewed here.
- Dorien Styven participated in episode 5 of the podcast ‘De Kunst van het verdwijnen’ by Bart Van Nuffelen, weighing in as an expert on the story of Fred Jeruzalski/Kader, a young boy who survived the war.
- Dorien Styven was interviewed in the context of the story of Jewish resistance fighter Hélène Moskiewiez in episode 5 of ‘Onverzettelijk Elsene’, a series produced by Brussels TV channel BRUZZ.
- On 10 November, the EHRI launched the podcast ‘A girl and a teddy bear’ with Veerle Vanden Daelen.
- Eighty years after the first transport, director Tomas Baum was invited to talk about this important date in a radio programme called De Ochtend on Radio 1.
Feedback from our visitors
Moving, an eye-opener. An opportunity to reflect on the consequences of bullying and exclusion.Stefan De Moor
Moving. A must-visit.Patrick Van Reempts
Only five stars can pay tribute to the meticulous, momentous work that has gone into giving a voice to the millions whose lives were destroyed by unimaginable horror, while warning that if democracy fails such horrors can, and do, return. It is impossible to do everything justice in one visit.Michael John
A place of remembrance, a fateful place yes, but also a place where you can learn a lot about life, humanity and emotion! Regular visits are the equivalent of a much-needed booster shot to ensure we never forget!” Go visit! The museography is also quite striking!David Defgnee
A beautiful museum. The guided tour is highly recommended.Werner
Friendly welcome and a very nice museum with often very interesting temporary exhibitions. The permanent exhibition is a beautiful memory of a dark chapter in history. Never forget!J-Michel R
Very moving and a nice museum!! Definitely worth visiting if you happen to be in Mechelen!Thierry Bellens
A highly relevant message for future generations.Michel Baert
Organisation
Figures
- Full-time employees19
- Men8,5
- Women10,5
- Part-time employees7,9
- Incoming2
- Outgoing2
- Seconded employees (integrated police)2
- Guides66
- Volunteers34
- HPM (Holocaust, Police and Human Rights) coaches79
- Trainees4
After a few turbulent years with high employee turnover, 2022 was a year of more stability and peace within the team. Two new employees joined the team, while two others left.
Kazerne Dossin tries to stimulate connection between colleagues by organising team days, team meetings, and informal team gatherings.
For guides and volunteers, 2022 offered more possibilities and job opportunities. Following the easing of measures for group trips, more school and group visits were organised in 2022.
In 2022, Kazerne Dossin continued to focus on well-being, personal and professional development, and performance management. Finally, in 2022, Kazerne Dossin began working on adapting its working regulations, with more attention to well-being and a good work-life balance.
Training & Education
In 2022, Kazerne Dossin encouraged its employees to follow training, whether technical or other, as part of their personal development. Kazerne Dossin organised a series of collective training sessions on the use of Salesforce, a CRM programme, in addition to more content-based training and further training for guides. An in-house training session was organised on the use of the online Database and several employees also followed project management training. Many employees followed individual training and workshops on a wide range of themes such as polarisation, first aid, discussion techniques, social-legal current developments, prevention and protection at work, education and remembrance, fundraising, graphic design, bystander effect, visitor experience, communication, violence… Security is an important issue to Kazerne Dossin. The security manager always organises a security training for new employees, trainees, and guides. Many of the employees also attended online talks and conferences on such themes as the Holocaust, human rights, remembrance education, and museology.
Subsidies and partners
In working year 2022, Kazerne Dossin received structural funding from the Government of Flanders. The Belgian National Lottery continued to provide support for the maintenance of the Belgian pavilion in the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum. The temporary exhibition ‘Universal. Human Rights’, which opened in early 2022, received subsidies from the City of Mechelen, the Education department of the Flemish Community, and the Belgian National Lottery. Two EHRI projects received European project funding.
Friends and donations
In 2022, the Friends activities of Kazerne Dossin resumed after the pandemic. To renew contacts, Kazerne Dossin invited all the Friends to a guided tour of the temporary exhibition on ‘Universal. Human Rights’. Director Tomas Baum provided a word of welcome. Finally, everyone had the opportunity to reconnect over coffee and cake. Every year, the Friends pay €50 in financial support in exchange for several benefits. In 2022, Kazerne Dossin once again received financial gifts from private individuals and families of victims. We also received requests to install a commemorative plaque on the museum façade.
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With thanks to
With thanks to
All these achievements could not have been possible without the passion and commitment of all the employees, guides, volunteers, and trainees of Kazerne Dossin.
The contribution of all the members of the Board of Directors and the General Assembly is also instrumental to the activities of Kazerne Dossin.
Kazerne Dossin also wishes to thank all its partners, sponsors, and Friends for their support.
We wish to thank the family members and friends of victims in particular for their support and donations.
General functioning of Kazerne Dossin
Flemish government : Operating subsidy
City of Mechelen : Operating subsidy
Specific projects
Belgian Pavilion Auschwitz : National Lottery
Special Committee for Remembrance Education : Flemish Ministry of Education and Training
Left behind: Family Morris
Universal Human Rights : National Lottery
Travelling exhibition #FakeImages : Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), ALAVA, European Commission, German Embassy
European Holocaust Research Infrastructure : Horizon2020 programme of the European Commission
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
Fundraising: King Baudouin Foundation
Kazerne Dossin is especially grateful to the following people for their donations to the research centre: Michael Bolle-Van Ham, Danièle Boüüaert, Brigit and Manon Camberlin, Edithe Cukierbaum, Philippe De Gusseme, Filip De Sutter, Ingrid De Varez, the Ecran-Petri family (thanks to Rita Adriaenssens), Nizan Edelbaum, Gizela Flachs, the Gemeiner family (thanks to Liliane Van Nynatten and Sandra Vanmarsnille), Andrée Geulen (thanks to Anne and Catherine Herscovici), Jeanne Glibert, Nicole Gold, Renée Grabiner, Lesley Greenwald, David Itzkowic, Leon Katz (thanks to Regina Sluszny), Claire Kaufman, the Klein family, Joe Kosterich, Elise Leekens and Christiane Boone-Van Gaever, Henri Mandler, Carl Mathys, the Oerlemans family (thanks to Maria Foncke), Hanni Perck, Andy Popperwell, Koen Pyl, Liliane Reisdorf, Eli Ringer, Amos Russak (thanks to Heimo Gruber), Max Schindler, Jacques Schop, Shifra Senderowicz, Shifra Stahl, Yvonne Stollard, Anna Teitelbaum, Anne and Patricia Turfkruijer, Sarah Van Camp, Aagje Van Cauwelaert, Denis Van der Linden, Frank Van der Mussele, Flor Van Laer, Lies Vernimmen, Patrick Verwerft, Grace Winter and Lucy Wolkowitz.
Kazerne Dossin thanks all the researchers, family members, and friends of deportees who donated photos for the portrait wall.
Kazerne Dossin wishes to thank the following for their donations to the library: Dudu Amitaï, Bergen-Belsen Memorial, Alain Blitz, Geoffrey Buck, Lieven and Mirjam D’Hondt, Franck Fajnkuchen, Fondation Gillès, Heemkundekring Corsendonca, Ludwig Inken (Stiftung Hamburger Gedenkstätte und Lernorte zur Erinnerung an die Opfer der NS-Verbrechen), Ignace Lesnicki, Esther Naschelski, Adolphe Nysenholc, Marie Schits, the Van Beylen-Beirnaert family, Ronny and Jessy Van de Velde, Justine Van den Bussche, Anne Velghe and Diane Verstraeten.
