Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen

I've been knowing the Dossin Kazerne and its awful history all my life as Mechelen is my home town and used to live around the corner so to speak. I'm still from a generation in which my parents and grandparents used to tell us stories about the Dossin Kazerne and what atrocities took place there during WWII. Last week when visiting Mechelen I showed my partner this place for the first time in his life. We stepped inside the Kazerne itself and told him that what happened here so many years ago could still happen today, any time, as certain European countries still have not yet learned from history!! All people seem to need is a well-oiled propaganda machine to justify to themselves it was and is a "good thing" to seclude healthy people from society. Healthy people. ... and that's how terrible horror atrocities all start : blind belief in propaganda. Just walk inside the Kazerne and probably you'll get the chills all over!

A highly emotional and poignant experience in the serene and respectful surroundings of a monument to those persecuted by the Nazi occupation and certain collaborators. A heart of stone would be required to keep from tearing up while you walk the corridors of photos , audio visual commentary , statistics , personal effects , artefacts , horrid stories of torture and the tearing apart of lives and families - men , women , and children . The enormous photo walls of the faces of the 28800+ deportees from Kazerne Dossin of the "Give them a Face" initiative pay tribute to the persecuted and put faces to the numbers. Personalising what the criminal oppressors did everything in their power to de-personalise . In these days of populist, nationalist, xenophobic, repressive , prejudice, and anti immigrant sentiment a visit to museums and sites such as this should be required for all children and adults . It bears witness to the effect of creeping and unopposed discrimination , repression , and racism . Humans are all equal . The events that this shrine was built to immortalise should not fall from our memory now or from the memory of any future generation . We must never forget . #peace (Footnote: Maybe a missed opportunity to give a name and a face and honour to those who saved so many children from being transported - the nuns next door in the convent and Bruno Ceupens for example - who are righteous amongst nations )

I went to this place thinking that I would see the rooms of the camp however it is just a museum that shows you the timeline of the war. How Hitler and his party came to power, you literally witness the war, how Jewish people and Gypsies were targeted and slowly excluded from society. Moreover, museum exhibits artwork and belongings of some Jewish people (camp uniforms, silverware and armband etc.). The museum has 4 floors and if you read everything and watch every video it will take you more than 2 hours to finish.

Only five stars can pay tribute to the meticulous, momentous work that has gone into giving a voice to the millions whose lives were destroyed by unimaginable horror, while warning that if democracy fails such horrors can, and do, return. It is impossible to do everything justice in one visit.

In the bartacks is a small exhibition, the real one is at the other side of the road. This is an intresting and very nice exhibition With videos from people who lived during the war. You should take a few hours to do the tour. It has 4floors, the upper is a fantastic vieuw over Mechelen.