KAZERNE DOSSIN MEMORIAAL, MUSEUM ENDOCUMENTATIECENTRUM OVER HOLOCAUSTEN MENSENRECHTEN

Kazerne Dossin: Memorial, Museum and Research Center on the Holocaust and Human Rights focuses on the Belgian history of the Holocaust. Kazerne Dossin uniquely combines remembrance and Holocaust education on the one hand, and human rights education on the other. The mission statement summarises the objectives of Kazerne Dossin as follows: “Kazerne Dossin draws on the historical account of the Jewish persecution and the Holocaust from a Belgian perspective to reflect on contemporary phenomena of racism and the exclusion of communities and on discrimination for reasons of origin, faith, belief, colour, sex or sexual orientation. Additionally, Kazerne Dossin seeks to analyse group violence in society as a possible steppingstone to genocides. Thus conceived, the museum makes a fundamental contribution to the educational, social project in which citizenship, democratic resistance and the protection of individual basic freedoms are central.” As a museum and memorial site, we welcome almost 90 000 visitors annually, with room to grow. The background of our visitors is extremely diverse, ranging from large groups of students, starting around the age of 10, to police officers in training, teachers, magistrates, offenders of discrimination or hate crime and individual visitors from all walks of life. For each of these target groups we strive to develop a specific trajectory, with the Belgian Football Pro League as our most recent partner in combatting antisemitic and other discriminatory behaviour in Belgian football. Moreover, Kazerne Dossin is a member of both IHRA and EHRI. Over the past years Kazerne Dossin has hosted and curated temporary exhibitions on different subjects, always within the framework of our mission statement. Our current exhibition #Fake Images, in collaboration with TU Berlin looks at antisemitism in the 19th and 20th centuries and universal mechanisms behind hate, such as stereotypes and bias. As part of this exhibition we will host a seminar called Fake Seminar in October 2021. This interactive, live seminar aims to bring teachers, police officers and magistrates together, in the hope that they will be able to cross pollinate and learn from each other. In February 2022 our in-house curated exhibition Universal Human Rights will invite visitors to take a closer look at human dignity, the universality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human rights violations and hope. Our starting point for this story is the liberation of concentration camps at the end of the Second World War. Kazerne Dossin upholds collaboration with different European institutions and memorials and aims to welcome international visitors. The presence of a young European and German volunteer in a memorial place like the Kazerne Dossin is also a sign of how peace can develop over the years. In conclusion, this museum will make a fundamental contribution to an educational social project which focuses on citizenship, democratic resistance, and the defence of individual basic freedoms.