ANNUAL REPORT 2015 ANNUAL REPORT 2015 Ce rapport est également disponible en français. Dit jaarverslag is ook beschikbaar in het Nederlands. Cover photograph : © Sven Smets Photographs : © Sven Smets / Klaartje De Boeck / Sara Verhaert / Karakters Editor: Sara Verhaert Editorial board: Frederic Diependaele, Dorien Styven and Katleen Maesen (linguistic advice) Translations: Barbara Otten and Alison Mouthaan Publisher: Christophe Busch, vzw Kazerne Dossin, Goswin de Stassartstraat 153, 2800 Mechelen Design: Karakters, Ghent All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher. CONTENT 2 23 Foreword Lectures & publications 4 2015 in figures 27 Marketing & Communication 6 Special exhibitions and events 32 Organization 13 Education 36 2015 in a nutshell 17 External Relations 42 With thanks to 19 Collections & Research As the chairman of vzw Kazerne Dossin, at the donk jointly organized the special exhibition beginning of 2016 I can look back on three years Liberation! Belgians in German Camps. A series of intense and effective activity. With more than of photographs on show for the first time pro- 250,000 visitors for the museum, including vided new insight into the last turbulent months many schoolchildren and teachers, hundreds of of war in 1945. Again the exhibition, which ran visitors for the documentation centre and over from April to the end of the year, attracted a great 100 trained guides and volunteers, Kazerne deal of interest. Dossin is gradually coming to occupy an impor- Thanks to our contacts with victims’ next of tant place on the museum scene. kin, we were the recipients of yet more, interesting In recent years we have made every effort to family archives as evidenced by the wall of por- ensure an even better museum experience. As traits, a striking and moving representation of the well as launching a brand-new digital museum many stories behind the pictures. As per annual app, we added hundreds of authentic objects tradition, on the museum’s third anniversary we belonging to deportees to the permanent exhi- were able to add missing portraits to this wall. bition. We also found new ways to convey our message: the story of Simon Gronowski took the As an organization we increasingly move in form of a workshop for primary schools and a international circles. For example, Kazerne Dos- narrative trail relating to Malvine Löwenwirth sin’s museum projects have led to its close was created for the tablet computer. involvement in the international network of For the seventieth anniversary of the libera- Holocaust and Human Rights Museums. Given tion of the camps, Kazerne Dossin and Fort Breen- our expertise, it is only right that Kazerne Dossin 2 Foreword should play a role in the challenge of engaging Auschwitz has just appeared about Jews de- with controversial subjects like radicalization by ported from Belgium via France. sharing new thinking and initiatives. Kazerne Dossin’s concept of human rights, Last but not least, in 2015 we said goodbye to which takes the form of an analysis of mass vio- Ward Adriaens upon his well-deserved retire- lence in contemporary society, is more relevant ment. He was director of the Jewish Museum of than ever in these times of radicalization and Deportation and Resistance and remained terror. The main spin-off of this themed approach active as an archivist and honorary curator of is currently our cooperation with the Federal Law Kazerne Dossin after it opened in 2012. At the Enforcement. Every year we welcome some end of 2015 the Flemish Government rewarded 2,000 police officers to Kazerne Dossin for a day him for his services by knighting him to the Order of intensive training. of Leopold. Kazerne Dossin also contributes to international With the support of our holocaust research. In 2015 our senior re- many partners and donors, searcher Laurence Schram successfully de- in 2016 we will be able to fended her Ph.D. on the Dossin barracks. So we mount more, exciting spe- now have a comprehensive study of the history cial projects. of the SS-Sammellager Mecheln, which we will publish in book form in the foreseeable future. Eric Stroobants Furthermore, a voluminous study entitled Drancy- Chairman Kazerne Dossin 3 2015 in figures 64.394 visitors for the museum 194 visitors for the documentation centre 26.429 visitors for the memorial , of which 1000 unique visitors. The remainder visited both museum and memorial. 1485 digital inquiries for the documentation centre 92.754 DIGITAL 87.604 unique visitors VISITORS to the website 3665 followers on social media 4 3884 teachers 27.860 minors (in group and individuals) 280 articles published in the press 182 new photographs added to the wall of portraits 5 Signing of Declaration of Commitment Flemish Education Minister Hilde Crevits and heads of educa- tional institutes signed a declaration of commitment for more remembrance education. 27.01.2015 Evening event | International Holocaust Memorial Day Exhibition opening | Art is a cry by Osias Hofstätter On January 27th the world commemorated the 70th anniver- sary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Kazerne Dossin In 2012 Galerie Lammel in Germany donated a large opened its doors for a special evening event in association with number of works by the painter Osias Hofstätter to the United Nations. Kazerne Dossin. The museum put them on show for the general public. 6 Special exhibitions and events 22.03.2015 02.04.2015 – 31.12.2015 Launch | Kazerne Dossin app Presentation of the interactive app in the presence of Flemish Minister for Tourism Ben Weyts. Exhibition | Liberation! Belgians in German camps Buchenwald concentration camp was liber- ated 70 years ago. A series of photographs, on display for the first time, shows the conditions in which the Belgian military missions and journalists found their liberated compatriots. The exhibition depicts the lives of perpetra- tors and victims in the camp, their instru- ments of torture, their liberation and repatri- ation. The exhibition culminates in the portraits of liberated Belgians who were iden- tified through research. A revealing look at the last turbulent months of war in 1945 and their effect on daily life. Mounted in associa- tion with CEGESOMA and Fort Breendonk. 7 ARTISTIC | Contour: Biennial of the Moving Image CONTOUR 7, the seventh edition of the Biennial of the Moving Image, presented the work of more than 20 artists from home and abroad in various VIP holiday for teachers locations in Mechelen. Kazerne Dossin showed an installation by Sander Breure & Witte Van Hulzen Teachers were given free access to the from the Netherlands, with confrontational images museum to find out about the educational of refugees on the Mediterranean Sea and of the offer. They also had the chance to follow island of Utøya, where an attack took place in guided tours and take part in workshops. 2011. 06.04 - 19.04.2015 17.04.2015 29.08 – 08.11.2015 Film | Im Labyrinth des Schweigens Preview of the German film Im Labyrinth des Schwei- gens about the Nazi trials in Frankfurt. The screening was followed by a panel discussion with director Giulio Ricciarelli and actor Alexander Fehling. In as- sociation with Lumière. 8 Lecture | Het Boek der Kampen (The Book of Camps) by Sis Van Eeckhout A cooperation between Kazerne Dossin, 8 Mei Comité, HVV Mechelen, UPV Mechelen and Vermeylen fonds Mechelen. Heritage Day (Open Monumentendag) Themed guided tour of the historic Dossin barracks 13.09.2015 07.10.2015 11.10.2015 Themed guided tour Teachers’ Day Architecture Day Dutch-speaking teachers attended Architectural tour of the new workshops and talks and followed museum building led by one of guided tours relating to remembrance the architects. education. 9 Theatre | De Weg (The Road) by Ekaterina Levental Narrative concert by harp player and singer Ekaterina Levental and artist Chris Koolmees. Ekaterina told the story of her escape from the former Soviet Union Teachers’ Day twenty years ago. Of the vicissitudes she suffered as she made her way from country to country and of her French-speaking teachers at- difficult teenage years. Of how fleeing cuts the ground tended workshops and talks and from under your feet, but also opens new doors to the followed guided tours relating future. In association with De Bijloke. to remembrance education. 13.10.2015 14.10.2015 10 Commemoration | Kazerne Dossin, 3 years To mark the museum’s third anniversary, 182 photographs were added to the wall of portraits in the presence of family members and friends. 27.10.2015 30.11.2015 Lecture | Orgelman (Organ Man) by Mark Schaevers The author and winner of the Gouden Boekenuil, Flanders’ most important literary prize, presented a miscellany about Felix Nussbaum, Jewish artist and deportee from the Dossin barracks. An ode to an artist whose last wish was that his work would live on after him. 11 10.12.2015 Evening event | Exhibition opening The Armenian Genocide, 100 years on Precisely a hundred years ago more than one million people lost their lives in one of the largest ethnic cleansings ever: the Armenian Gen- ocide. On December 10th the world paused to remember this black page in history. On Human Rights Day the museum opened the exhi- bition The Armenian Genocide, 100 years on in the presence of Mechelen’s Armenian community. A cooperation between Kazerne Dossin, City of Mechelen, Agent- schap Integratie en Inburgering, Mechelen-Armenian Society ANI vzw and the Assyrian community. 12 Education Declaration of Commitment On Holocaust Memorial Day Flemish Education Minister Hilde Crevits and the heads of the various educational networks signed a joint declaration of commitment at Kazerne Dossin. It raises awareness of genocides and crimes against humanity committed during the Second World War.