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The Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance (JMDR) is situated in the building which was previously known as the Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen, Belgium. It was here that, in 1942, the Nazis established SS-Sammellager Mecheln (SS-Collection Camp Mechelen).

This place was the departure point for a deportation without return. In the years between 1942 and 1944, 24.916 Jews and 351 Gypsies were transported to the camps in the east. Two thirds were gassed upon arrival. At the time of the liberation only 1.221 people had survived.

The Kazerne Dossin was therefore, literally, ‘the waiting room for death’. The underlying theme of the Museum is to cover this dark period in our history.