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29-604: Between July 1942 and September 1944, Kazerne Dossin (Dossin Barracks) was known as SS-Sammellager Mecheln , a Nazi collection and deportation camp . Here, 25,274 Jews and 354 Romani people were rounded up and transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and other concentration camps in the east. Two-thirds were killed upon arrival. By the time of the liberation and the end of the Holocaust in Belgium , only 1,395 of them had survived. After

58-610: A large square yard was fitted with barbed wire. It became operational in July 1942. The camp staff was mostly German but was assisted by Belgian collaborationist paramilitaries from the Algemeene-SS Vlaanderen ("General SS Flanders"). It was officially under the command of Philipp Schmitt , commandant of the Fort Breendonk. The acting commandant at Mechelen was SS officer Rudolph Steckmann. The first group of people arrived in

87-528: A number of Jews were also held in a segregated part of the camp. As part of the Final Solution after January 1942, it was decided to transport Belgian Jews to concentration and extermination camps in Eastern Europe . Approximately 90 percent of Belgium's Jewish population lived in the cities of Antwerp and Brussels in 1942. Accordingly, Mechelen , a city with a railway hub located halfway between

116-617: The 2nd Canadian Division entered Belgium on 2 September. Forge-Philippe  [ fr ] , located on the French border, was the first settlement to be liberated, although La Glanerie  [ fr ] also claims that honor. On the evening of 2 September Brian Horrocks briefed officers of the Guards Armoured Division in Douai that their objective for the following day would be Brussels , 110km further east. The announcement

145-643: The 4th Canadian Armoured Division crossed the border with Belgium and took areas around Ypres and Passchendaele . After the capture of Brussels the Germans formed a defensive line in the municipality of Hechtel . There they held against the Welsh Guards, in what is known as the Battle of Hechtel , until 12 September, when the Irish Guards made a flanking maneuver, capturing Bridge number 9 (Joe's Bridge), and isolating

174-992: The Belgian Army . It was used until 1975 when it was abandoned. Apart from a wing renovated in the 1980s for social housing, the barracks became the site of the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance by 1996. In 2001, the Flemish Government decided to expand the institution by a new complex built opposite the old barracks; the latter closed in July 2011, to become a memorial monument. The Kazerne Dossin – Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights reopened its doors on 26 November 2012. Liberation of Belgium Luxembourg The Netherlands Belgium France Britain 1941–1943 1944–1945 Germany Strategic campaigns The Liberation of Belgium from German occupation began on 2 September 1944 when Allied forces entered

203-618: The Dossin barracks , was a detention and deportation camp established in a former army barracks at Mechelen in German-occupied Belgium . It served as a point to gather Belgian Jews and Romani ahead of their deportation to concentration and extermination camps in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust . The camp was established in March 1942 and was the only transit camp in Belgium. It

232-603: The Liberation of Belgium in September 1944 and subsequently was repurposed for housing. A museum was established in 1996 and today part of the former barracks and a new building opposite form part of the Kazerne Dossin – Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights , which includes a Holocaust memorial and museum . Belgium was invaded by Nazi Germany in a rapid military campaign on 10–28 May 1940 . It

261-407: The 18 members of the scientific advisory council resigned after a December 2019 incident where the daily management abruptly cancelled a ceremony where Pax Christi would deliver its peace ambassadorship to Middle East expert Brigitte Herremans  [ nl ] . The nine academics said Kazerne Dossin should not be a place to develop the current politics of Israel. Jewish groups had protested

290-640: The Allies approached Mechelen by 3 September 1944, the Germans fled the Dossin Barracks, leaving the 527 remaining prisoners behind. Some remaining prisoners escaped that night and the others were freed on the 4th, though soon replaced with suspected collaborators . The lists of deportees were left at Hasselt during the German retreat and were later discovered intact. In 1948 Dossin Barracks reverted to its original use by

319-561: The Flemish Government decided to expand the site by constructing a new museum complex opposite the old barracks. It opened its doors in September 2012 under its present name. Fort Breendonk , a Nazi prison camp near Mechelen, is also open as a museum. In November 2019, general director Christoph Busch resigned because, in his view, the daily management was focused too much on the Holocaust memorial aspect and not enough on documenting current human rights violations . In March 2020, half of

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348-577: The Germans. Between 9 and 11 September, the 1st Polish Armoured Division attempted to capture control of the Ghent Canal, which resulted in heavy losses for the Poles after they had run into fierce resistance over difficult terrain. Further up the river, 3 miles (5 kilometres) south of Bruges , the 4th Canadian Armoured Division launched an offensive on 8 September and broke through two days later, after coming under heavy mortar fire . A narrow river crossing

377-551: The Holocaust . In line with the Nazi racial policy that much later became named the Romani genocide , 351 Belgian Roma were sent to Auschwitz in early 1944. Conditions at the Mechelen camp were especially brutal. Many Roma were locked in basement rooms for weeks or months at a time without food or sanitary facilities. The Roma had an especially low survival rate. Some people succeeded in escaping

406-595: The award, claiming Herremans is a pro-Palestinian activist who supports sanctions against Israel and had claimed that pro-Israel activists "vastly inflate" antisemitism. [REDACTED] Media related to Kazerne Dossin memoriaal at Wikimedia Commons 51°02′03″N 4°28′43″E  /  51.0341°N 4.4785°E  / 51.0341; 4.4785 Mechelen transit camp The Mechelen transit camp , officially SS-Sammellager Mecheln ( lit.   ' SS Assembly Camp Mechelen ' ) in German , also known as

435-462: The camp from Antwerp on 27 July 1942. Between August and December 1942, two transports, each with about 1,000 Jews, left the camp every week for Auschwitz concentration camp . Between 4 August 1942 and 31 July 1944, a total of 28 trains left Mechelen for Poland, carrying 24,916 Jews and 351 Roma; most of them went to Auschwitz. This figure represented more than half of the Belgian Jews murdered during

464-655: The liberators. As Brussels was being liberated, an attempt by the Germans to deport 1,600 political prisoners and Allied prisoners of war from Brussels to concentration camps in Germany via the Nazi ghost train was thwarted by Belgian railway workers and the Belgian resistance. The Welsh Guards advanced from Douai on 3 September crossing into Belgium with minimal resistance until they met some at Halle , but they pressed on that day to Brussels. The British Second Army captured Antwerp ,

493-601: The port city on the river Scheldt in northern Belgium, close to the Netherlands , on 4 September. In the following days and weeks, the Battle of the Scheldt claimed many lives, as the port of Antwerp could not be operated effectively without control of the Scheldt estuary. Antwerp was the first port to be captured by the Allies in near perfect condition, making it very valuable, especially with its deep water facilities. On 6 September,

522-440: The province of Hainaut and was completed on 4 February 1945 with the liberation of the village of Krewinkel . The liberation came after four years of German -occupied rule. The Belgian government was returned to power on 8 September 1944 after Allied forces had captured Brussels four days earlier. The liberation began with 21st Army Group heading eastwards from the breakout from Falaise . Units of XXX Corps , including

551-414: The train station of Boortmeerbeek , 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south-east of Mechelen. From this action 17 prisoners managed to flee. More Jews escaped by their own deeds, a total of 231 Jews fled although 90 were eventually recaptured and 26 were shot by guards escorting the train. The last transport left on 31 July 1944 but Allied forces could not stop it before its destination was reached. As Belgium

580-572: The transports, especially from the Transports 16 and 17 which consisted of men returned from forced labor on the Atlantic Wall to Belgium. Most of these men jumped between Mechelen and the German border. Many were caught and were soon put on subsequent transports but a total of about 500 Jewish prisoners did manage to escape across all the 28 transports. On 19 April 1943 three resistance fighters, acting on their own initiative, stopped Transport 20 near

609-550: The two, was chosen as the site of the new transit camp. The building chosen to house the camp was a former army facility called Dossin Barracks, built in 1756 and named after Lieutenant-General Émile Dossin de Saint-Georges , a hero of the Battle of the Yser during World War I . It was located in the north of the city and provided access to the railway freight dock serving the River Dyle . The three-storey block that completely surrounded

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638-541: The war, the former infantry barracks was partially renovated as civil housing; the Flemish Government , Province of Antwerp and the City of Mechelen financing the purchase of the ground floor and the basement of the right wing. In 1995 this building became the site of the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance , later renamed. The Museum covered the following aspects of the Final Solution in Belgium and Europe: In 2001,

667-400: Was being liberated, an attempt by the Germans to deport 1,600 political prisoners and Allied prisoners of war from Brussels to concentration camps in Germany via the Nazi ghost train was thwarted by Belgian railway workers and the Belgian resistance. The train made it to Mechelen but returned to Brussels where the release of the prisoners was negotiated by Swiss and Swedish diplomats. When

696-651: Was greeted with "delighted astonishment". The Division suffered casualties on their drive into Belgium but with the Germans still in disarray after their defeat at Falaise, the Household Cavalry on the British left and the Grenadier Guards on the right led the way with the Welsh and Irish Guards following close behind. People in the Belgian capital had not expected to be liberated that soon, and huge crowds greeted and slowed

725-535: Was managed by the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo-SD), a branch of the Reich Security Main Office , and was used to hold Jews and Romani ahead of their deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau as well as other camps including Heydebreck-Cosel . Between 4 August 1942 and 31 July 1944, 28 trains left from near the camp and deported over 25,800 people. Only 1,240 survived the war. The camp was abandoned at

754-507: Was opened and extended slowly due to heavy enemy resistance. The First United States Army , under General Courtney Hodges , captured areas south of Brussels in early September 1944. The U.S. units were spread very thinly from south of Liège , through the Ardennes and into Luxembourg , leaving their defensive line lightly reinforced. Between September and 16 December, the Ardennes Forest

783-482: Was subsequently placed under a military occupation administration which would endure until July 1944 when the territory briefly passed under a civilian administration , brought to an end by the Liberation of Belgium in September 1944. As early as September 1940, the German administration established a prison camp in Fort Breendonk , a former Belgian military fort. Inmates were largely political prisoners , though

812-615: Was the "quiet sector"—the Americans used this area to rest tired units. Adolf Hitler launched Germany's last offensive of the Western Front on 16 December, known as the Battle of the Bulge . He intended to push through the Ardennes Forest with the 6th Panzer Division advancing and capturing the coastal town of Antwerp. The Fifth Panzer Army , under German general Hasso von Manteuffel ,

841-438: Was to attack the U.S. forces in the region, and the 7th German Army was to attack to the south to cut off supplies and create a buffer zone . On the morning of the 16 December, a two-hour German artillery bombardment startled the Allies. When the German forces attacked, it was foggy, and the Allies could not use their air superiority to resupply ground units. On 18 December, after advancing 60 miles (97 kilometres) in two days,

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