Kazerne Dossin – Memorial

A museum that explores questions on humanity. That brings relevance to today's world for youngsters and adults alike.
Recommended time is 2 hours, though we easily spent 3 hours!

A must visit for everybody to remember how bad individual people can grow into a very bad society...

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 )

Unforgettable! Amazing museum! We had with children's of our survival, Mrs Eva fastag z"l. and all of them also were be interested.
We are very interested and were so impressed by the general director tomas baum who come to meet us. Thanks to the historian Tine, and peiter seirrin. With guide is so so much excitement. Dont forget to see the view from the upper balcony. Is sad and architectural design amazing as well.

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.

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.

Must see!
But take your time (like a day), this is too overwhelming for a morning visit

If you go there, remember it's a memorial. The only and important purpose is to remember the people and what happened. You can combine your visit with the Holocaust museum on the other side of the road which is not in the Kazerne Dossin.

Landmark in the city of Mechelen, commemorating a dark moment in our history. Touching exposition.

Very informative tour and nice starting point for a Holocaust tour in the area, including the Fort of Breendonk and Boortmeerbeek where members of the resistance who were later executed, were able to bring a convoy to a stop and free several hundred Jews and gypsies of which over 200 survived the genocide.

Excellent presentation of incredibly difficult information. Hard to see…but not to be missed.

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.

This is an amazing museum on one of the saddest pages in human history. It tells the story of the Holocaust and particularly how it unfolded in Belgium. This is all done through historic documents and testimonials in a chronological narrative from the 30s onward, allowing to develop a vivid picture of collaboration, of resistance and actions in the between.

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!

Absolutely worth a visit!! This museum tells the story of the world war in a unique way: everything is told from the perspective of the victims of this tragedy. A beautiful, modern building with a panoramic view on top of the museum. Most of all, we loved the enthusiastic explanation by our guide, Etienne!

One of the best Jewish history museums, balanced with exhibits and texts, photos, videos and interactivity.

Very impressive, educative too, it had a huge impact on me even though I never really cared about the subject before, it is so much more interesting now. They also tell the tales of the forgotten victims. Did hope they would include LGBTQ people that were victims too, but it was not included in the tour we got.

Fascinating insight into the horrors of the Holocaust both in Mechelen and Belgium as a whole. Its made very well across different floors in an ultra modern building. It also regularly hosts temporary exhibitions and boasts excellent views of the city from the top of the museum.

Very interactive exhibition that focuses on the personal stories of people killed in concentration camps. Lot's of background stories and videos of survivals. It's beautiful and interesting but you will walk away with a stone in your stomach.

The permanent exhibition at this excellent museum clearly provides the context and explanation of the transportation of Jews (& Roma & Commjnists) from this site in Mechelen to Auschwitz by train. It also details the rise of Nazism in Germany and the occupation of Belgium. The wall of individual photographs with biographical details is poignant. The museum is on three floors (there is a lift) and the temporary exhibition on the ground floor currently focuses on Auschwitz. Across the courtyard is a Memorial Garden. The whole site is well worth a visit.