Mechelen transit camp
Former Nazi transit camp and a current museum in Belgium / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Mechelen transit camp, officially SS-Sammellager Mecheln (lit. 'SS Assembly Camp Mechelen') in German, also known as 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.
Mechelen transit camp SS-Sammellager Mecheln | |
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Transit camp | |
Modern view of Dossin Barracks which housed the transit camp | |
Coordinates | 51°02′02″N 4°28′42″E |
Other names | SS-Sammellager Mecheln |
Location | Mechelen, Belgium |
Operated by | Nazi Germany
|
Original use | Military barracks[Note 1] |
First built | 1756 |
Operational | July 1942 – September 1944 |
Inmates | mainly Jews and Roma |
Number of inmates | Jews: 24,916[1] Roma: 351[2] |
Killed | c.300 (on-site only)[3] |
Liberated by | Allied Forces, 4 September 1944 |
Notable inmates | Felix Nussbaum,[4] Abraham Bueno de Mesquita |
Website | www |
The camp was established in March 1942 and was the only transit camp in Belgium. It 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.[5] Between 4 August 1942 and 31 July 1944, 28 trains left from near the camp and deported over 25,800 people.[1][6] Only 1,240 survived the war.[6]
The camp was abandoned at 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.