Portrait wall in museum enhanced with 78 new photographs, 14 new photographs for online monument
Mechelen, 29/11/2024 – On Thursday 28 November 92 new photographs were unveiled during the twelfth edition of Kazerne Dossin’s annual Portrait Ceremony. 78 are portraits of victims who were deported from Kazerne Dossin. A total of 21,029 deportees have already been given a face on the portrait wall of the museum. In addition to those deported from Kazerne Dossin, 14 new portraits have been added to the online monument to Jews originating from Belgium who were deported from France.
The 92 photographs can be added thanks to research and donations
Family members and relatives of victims still donate photographs to the research centre at Kazerne Dossin every year. Moreover, the research team is also continually searching for portraits in archives and at other research institutions, which is how they managed to track down a total of 92 portraits this year. Veerle Vanden Daelen, curator and coordinator of Collections & Research explained: “Kazerne Dossin has been collaborating with other institutions in this respect for many years. For example, with the State Archives or the Felix Archives in Antwerp. This year 18 new portraits were added thanks to the successful collaboration with Lille-Fives, an organisation based in northern France.”
The photographs will be added to the portrait wall in the museum, a living monument that grows year on year. The wall spans four floors and contains photographs or silhouettes representing all 25,843 people who were deported from Kazerne Dossin. 21,029 of them have now been given a face.
Twelfth edition of the Portrait Ceremony
To dedicate and unveil the new portraits, Kazerne Dossin hosts an annual Portrait Ceremony during which the victims are remembered and Kazerne Dossin researchers recount their search for photographs during the previous year.
Chairperson Marleen Vanderpoorten, curator and coordinator of Collections & Research Veerle Vanden Daelen and archivist Dorien Styven all took to the floor during the ceremony. Students from the Atheneum Busleyden school – Caputsteen campus in Mechelen read out the 92 names. Students from the Atheneum Busleyden School – Caputsteen campus in Mechelen read out the 92 names. Anne Ocket, the accompanying teacher, related: “Creating a bridge between past and present starts by creating a personal connection. Students feel a connection with the deportees whose names they proclaimed. This project gives them a greater insight into the lives of individuals, and they start exploring the narratives behind the numbers.”
Giving deportees a face and name again
The ‘Give Them a Face’ project, which involves researchers actively searching for portraits of deportees, has been running since 2004. Kazerne Dossin does not have a portrait for every deportee, which is why the ‘Every Name Matters’ project was launched, which involves 25,843 people each proclaiming the name of one deportee. More than 10,000 names have now been read out.
