The permanent exhibition focuses on the persecution of Jews, Roma* and Sinti in Belgium and Northern France during the Second World War, as well as on human rights.
The exhibition offers an answer to questions such as:
- How was the persecution and the Holocaust possible?
- Why was there persecution?
- What did the persecution mean for the victims? How did they react?
- Was there no resistance?
In the exhibition, you will step into the spiral of increasing violence that eventually led to mass murder. You chronologically follow the path of the victims, through photos, documents, multimedia and interviews with five survivors. During your visit you will learn more about the role of the perpetrators and the bystanders, including members of the resistance. At the end of the tour, the restoration of rights and the processing of traumas among the survivors are discussed.
The exhibition also deals with other violations of human rights, both in the past and the present.
This visit gives you a haunting insight into discrimination and exclusion, but also shows that each of us can stand up for another person, despite the pressure and aggression of the group.
A huge photo wall is central. On each floor you can see photo portraits of the victims who were deported from the Dossin barracks. Unfortunately, the wall is not yet complete. We are still looking for pictures, so that we can give a face to each name. The newly found portraits are attached to the wall each year during a Portrait Ceremony.