The 'Give Them a Face' project struck a chord with many, and upon publication, many relatives sent photos to the JMDR to add to the collection. From 2009-2017, the JMDR received 1,341 additional portraits. Also as a result of the success of the project, the JMDR launched a second phase of the project, collecting photos from the immigration files of Jews living in Belgium but deported from France .
This led to the collection of 4,169 photos of 5,877 deportees and the publication of these portraits in Drancy-Auschwitz in 2015 (Herman Van Goethem et al., Drancy-Auschwitz, 1942-1944: Jews from Belgium Deported via France, ASP, Brussels, 2015).
Today, JMDR’s successor, Kazerne Dossin, still continues this work, focusing on the immigration files as a whole, and holds over 1 million scans of over 20,000 files of Jews, Roma and Sinti living in Belgium before or during the Second World War. The files are accessible both at the Belgian State Archives in Brussels and at the Kazerne Dossin reading room. The files are a rich documentation source on the life of migrants and refugees in Belgium with documents including discussions about work permits; support letters and recommendations; information on reasons for migrating; plans for further migration; judicial documents; police reports on the arrest of refugees who immigrated illegally etc.
When working on the new permanent exhibition at Kazerne Dossin in 2010-2012, the museographer made the collected portraits of the deportees into the backbone of the museum building. A wall, containing 25,000 photos, stretches from the third floor to the ground floor. Every deportee leaving from Mechelen is represented on the wall, be it with a photo or just a silhouette if a photo has not yet been found. The photos literally stare back at the visitors, confronting them with the individuality of the deportees.