'Give Them a Face' – Commemorating Belgium
as a Transit Country
Dorien Styven
Dorien Styven, Kazerne Dossinn
25,274 Jews and 354 Roma and Sinti were deported from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Another 218 Jews were deported to Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Ravensbrück and Vittel. Less than 5% survived deportation.
Since the late 19th century, Belgium has been a transit country for people from all over Europe trying to reach territories overseas to build a new life. However, thousands of migrants and refugees remained in Belgium for various reasons such as health issues; difficulties obtaining visas; marriages and births, etc. By the time Nazi Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, the Jewish population was very diverse, ranging from ultra-orthodox to atheist, from politically far left to extremely conservative, from extremely wealthy to downright poor.
The Kazerne Dossin - Memorial, Museum and Documentation Center on the Holocaust and Human Rights is located in Mechelen, Belgium, in the former Dossin barracks which served as an SS-Sammellager for Jews, Roma and Sinti from 27 July 1942 until the Liberation on 4 September 1944.
Joe Loewenstein umieszcza zdjęcie swojej krewnej Esther Rozenzweig na Ścianie Pamięci podczas ceremonii w 2013 roku. Wszystkie zdjęcia © Kazerne Dossin (jeśli nie zaznaczono inaczej).