Obj. ID: 58613 Memorial to Deported Roma of Belgium at Kasarne Dossin Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre in Mechelen, Belgium, 1995
Name of Monument
No official name
What/Who is commemorated?
Roma deported from Belgium via Mechelen to Auschwitz and elsewhere
Description
A rectangular gray granite memorial plaque is affixed to an outer wall of the former barracks with text in Dutch and French indicating that Roma had been discriminated against.
Inscriptions
In Flemish:
SLACHTOFFERS VAN
VOOROORDELEN
ET DISCRIMINATIE
ROMS, MANOESJEN,
WOONWAGENBEWONERS
The same text, in French:
VICTIMES DES
PREJUGES ET DE
LA DISCRIMINATION
ROMS, MANOUCHES,
GENS DU VOYAGE
3 JUNI/JUIN 1995
Translation: Victims of prejudice and discrimination Roma, Manouches, Traveling people
Commissioned by
3 image(s)
“After WWII, the Dossin barracks was repossessed by the Belgian state. At the end of 1948, the Belgian army established a school in the barracks for the administration of the Army. In June 1950, a training centre of the Financial Services was added to the complex.
A commemorative plaque was attached to the façade of the Dossin barracks on 30 May 1948. Since 1956, an annual ceremony is held to commemorate the victims of racial deportation (Jews and Roma and Sinti). In 1986, a monument consisting of six pieces of railway tracks was inaugurated, symbolizing the six million Jews who were murdered.
On 3 June 1995, a plaque was also installed for the victims from the Roma and Sinti community. Unlike the plaque for Jewish victims, the plaque for Roma does not include the number of the Roma transported through Mechelen, or their fate.
(https://kazernedossin.eu/en/what-we-do/historiek/)
The Kazerne Dossin is a listed building; the Kazerne Dossin Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre is funded by the Flemish Government.
Kazerne Dossin website, https://kazernedossin.eu/en/ (accessed March 19, 2026)
Winstone, Martin, The Holocaust Sites of Europe: An Historical Guide (London & New York: I. B. Taurus, 2010)., p. 39.