General Documentation – Kazerne Dossin Mechelen

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Belgium

Holding institution:: Directorate-General War Victims, Archives and Documentation Department

Holding institution (official language):: Direction Générale Victimes de la Guerre, Service Archives et Documentation

Postal address:: Luchtvaartsquare 31 / Square de l’Aviation 31, 1070 Brussel (Anderlecht)

Phone number:: +32 (0)2 528 91 57

Web address:: http://warvictims.fgov.be/

Email:: archidoc@minsoc.fed.be

Reference number:: DirGenWarVic-Brussels-Algemene documentatie – Dossinkazerne Mechelen

Title:: General Documentation – Kazerne Dossin Mechelen

Title (official language):: Algemene documentatie – Dossinkazerne Mechelen

Creator/accumulator:: Kazerne Dossin – Memoriaal, Museum en Documentatiecentrum over Holocaust en Mensenrechten; Kazerne Dossin – Mémorial, Musée et Centre de Documentation sur l’Holocauste et les Droits de l’Homme; Kazerne Dossin - Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on the Holocaust and Human Rights

Date(s):: 1942/1952

Language:: German; French

Extent:: 14 binders, 4 folders and 1 notebook

Scope and content:: This fonds primarily consists of the original registers (occasionally annotated after the war) of the 28 transports leaving from the Kazerne Dossin to the German concentration camps and killing centres. In particular, they concern the transports I to XXVI, as well as the so-called “Z”-transports (of Turkish and Hungarian Jews and of Roma). We also find other documents such as German lists of these transports, lists of sick individuals who could not be transported, (post-war) lists of the individuals who escaped the 20th transport, notes concerning the 20th transport, AIVG index cards and a notebook regarding modifications of the transports (i.a. Jews transferred to a Jewish hospital or children’s home, released individuals, persons elected for the Palästina-Austausch, etc.). The materials described above can be found in nos. 941-960 of the inventory by Nefors.

Administrative/biographical history:: The infamous ‘Kazerne Dossin’ (‘Dossin barracks’) was built in the mid-18th century as an infantry barracks of the Austrian authorities. The complex was named Hof van Habsburg. Until the Second World War it continued to function as an army barracks. From July 1942 until the Liberation in 1944 it served as an SS-Sammellager (transit camp) for Jews and Roma. Jews – men, women and children – who had voluntarily registered or who had been arrested were imprisoned in the barracks awaiting deportation. Daily life in the barracks, the harsh camp regime and the violence of the camp guards have been depicted in many historical and autobiographical works. During the Occupation, 28 transports left Mechelen (including one so-called ‘Z-transport’ of Roma) for Auschwitz-Birkenau, totalling over 25,844 individuals. The vast majority did not return from the camps. Between 1945 and 1975 the buildings were once again used by the Belgian military. In the 1980s, after years of vacancy, the complex (threatened with demolition) was divided into apartments. Spurred by the Vereniging van de Joodse Weggevoerden in België and the Central Jewish Consistory of Belgium and with the support of the Flemish government, the Province of Antwerp and the city of Mechelen, part of the infrastructure was reserved with the intention of accommodating a museum about the sinister function of the barracks during the Occupation. The Joods Museum van Deportatie en Verzet (‘Jewish museum of deportation and resistance’), which also became a documentation centre, opened its doors in 1995. In the early 2000s, plans for a new and expanded museum were approved by the Flemish government. The foundation stone for the renewed museum site was laid in 2010. The updated museum, designed by Flemish architect Bob Van Reeth, was opened to the public in November 2012. Today, the complex is divided into a memorial (housed in the rooms of the old museum), a museum, and a documentation centre. (http://www.kazernedossin.eu)

Access points: locations:: Kazerne Dossin

Subject terms:: Children; Health and medical matters; Health and medical matters--Hospitals; Holocaust; Holocaust--Concentration camps; Holocaust--Deportation; Vital records

Access, restrictions:: The files can be consulted by the concerned individuals and their descendants. Consultation for the purpose of scientific research is authorised on the basis of a research declaration.

Finding aids:: There is a thematic and geographic card index. There is also a (partially outdated) inventory: P. Nefors, Inventaris van het Archief van de Dienst voor de Oorlogsslachtoffers – Inventaire des Archives du Service des Victimes de la Guerre, Brussel, 1997.

Yerusha Network member:: State Archives of Belgium

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