home > history > The 'Kazerne Dossin'

 

Schmitt and the Guards
The First Prisoners
Die Aufnahme (The Reception)
Living Conditions
Maler Stube (The Drawing Room)
Brutality and Humiliation
The Transfer of Authority to Adjunct-Major Frank
The Gypsies
Liberation

 

Schmitt and the Guards

On 15th July 1942 SS Sturmbannfuehrer (SS Major) Philippp Schmitt , who had been a member of the Nazi party since 1925, was appointed to be responsible for organising the Dossinkazerne in its new function as a collecting house for Jews. Schmitt was also in charge of the concentration camp of Breendonk where he had succeeded in building himself an unenviable reputation based on fear, terror and torture. General Von Falkenhausen , the  military commander of Belgium and Northern France, indeed, feared that Schmitt’s brutal behaviour would ensure that Breendonk would go down in the annals of history  as ‘Breendonk - The Hell’. However once in Mechelen Schmitt, together with his SS gaolers,
would again demonstrate that his authority was to be hallmarked by extreme cruelty with no respect for human dignity.

The make up of the guards entrusted with security inside the Dossinkazerne was as follows :
About a dozen Germann SS supported by a similar number of Flemish SS. External security was undertaken by the Wehrmacht (German Army) and after December 1942 by a company of Flemish SS troops. It only required, therefore about 60 Nazis, Belgians and German soldiers to control the camp.

 Philipp Schmitt with his dog, Lump,
in Breendonk (© Coll. Spronk – SOMA).

The First Prisoners

On 22nd July 1942, a number of Jews, including 10 women were arrested on a train travelling between  Brussels and Antwerp. They were sent firstly to Breendonk and afterwards, as, so to speak, a trial run for the administration process, five later days to Mechelen. A few hours after their arrival the first batch of forced labour candidates entered the Dossinkazerne.

The secretaries employed in the offices of the camp’s administration wing were mostly young
pretty girls with language skills. An important part of their work was the registration of newly arrived prisoners and later the correlation of inmates with the names on the transport lists. These lists are still intact in the Museum archives and show us clearly how the transport from Mechelen  to Auschwitz was carried out.

From 27th July 1942  the Dossinkazerne becameoperational. On 4th August 1943 ‘Convoy I’ leaves for Auschwitz – Birkenau in Poland. In the next 100 days almost 17.000 Jews are shipped east. Their stay in Mechelen is usually short, in fact , in most cases not more than a week. Later it took the Nazis longer to construct train convoys and susequently the prisoners were obliged to remain in the Dossinkazerne longer.

Transportliste (© Service of War Victims).

 

Die Aufnahme (The Reception)

The new arrivals were taken into custody by Ajunct-Major Max Boden, a retired policeman.
It was here that the first selections were made: those destined to be sent, as soon as possible, to the extermination camps and those given a reprieve mainly awaiting a clarification of their national or civil status. Belgian nationals, who made up only 6% of the Jewish community in Belgium were only authorised to be deported from September 1943. The holders of ‘exotic’ passports, Jews from mixed families, Jews who had been christened or who were married to Aryans were subjected to a special enquiry, and, pending the outcome were obliged to remain longer in the camp.

At the Reception the inmates received an identity document in the form of a stiff card on a cord which had to be worn around the neck (dog tag). Apart from one’s personel data this card had details over the prisonner’s status in the camp and information over which convoy they were destined to take.

The young ladies who were employed in the Aufnahme completed and issued the ID cards to the prisonners and took custody of all their other personel documents etc. which they had brought with them.  Some witnesses have stated that in the period when Schmitt was in charge of the Dossinkazerne, documents, photographs and other memorabilia were regularly
destroyed. Jos Hakker, who had escaped from ‘Convoy XVIII’ on 15th January 1943, stated in the clandestine press:

“I have seen with my own eyes, and that was perhaps even more terrible, photos of women, children, mothers and fathers, being destroyed. The identity papers, letters and all manner of official and legal documents snatched from the Jews and torn into shreds”.

Aufnahme, Irène Spicker-Awret
(© Beit Lohamei Haghetaot).

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Living Conditions

Life in the Dossinkazerne could, to some extent, be compared to living in an army barracks.
The conditions of hygiene were acceptable. The dormitories were kited out with iron bedsteads and mattresses, however as from October 1942 Prisoners were obliged to sleep on sacks filled with straw placed on the ground. They were allowed to receive packets and food supplies which were essential in supplementing the meagre rations. They were distributed daily. They were kept in the dormitories 22 hours a day.

When Frank became commander of the camp the tempo of the turnover of prisoners was greatly reduced. The convoys became less frequent an, this, the second phase in the history of the camp, was marked with one serious problem, namely, overcrowding. Certain members of prison society began to suffer from hunger, especially the poor and those without friends or family who were unable to obtain supplementary supplies from outside. Various endemic diseases typical of such conditios began to appear e.g. scabies, impetigo etc.
Children were often the first to succumb to these illnesses.

An extended stay in the holding camp of Mechelen brought with it a atmosphere of weariness and boredom. To counteract these feelings conferences, lessons and classes for children were organised. Artists began to draw and pain.t  The religious aspects of life took on an even more important function. Marriages were secretly consecrated.

Act of marriage in Hebrew ('ketoeba') between Rachel Mandel recta Kwadrat and Israël Iszaak Lipschitz, married in the Kazerne Dossin (© JMDR).

Portrait of Rachel Mandel, drawn by her husband (© JMDR).

 

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Maler Stube (The Drawing Room)

The camp was also endowed with a drawing room known as the Maler Stub. Amongst the prisoners  there were a number of renowned artists e.g. Léon Landau from Antwerp; Irène Spicker and her future husband, Azriel Awret from Brussels and Jacques Ochs from Liege.
Apart from run-of-the-mill tasks such as the painting of boards and the drawing and painting of numbers for the prisoners, the artists  were regularly  commissioned to execute portraits of their Nazi gaolers. Thanks to their privileged position these artists were able secretly to sketch scenes of life in the camp, caricatures, and portraits of their fellow captives. Some of these works, and in particular that of Felix Nussbaum from Ostend, have survived and form part of the internationally recognised ‘Art of the Shoah’.  These pictures are displayed in the Museum
as silent witnesses of ‘the spiritual resistance’.

A lorry being unloaded on the square of the Dossin Barracks.
Drawing by Irène Spicker-Awret (© Beit Lohamei Haghetaot).

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Brutality and Humiliation

During the regime of Phillip Schmitt the guards of the camp showed no signs of compassion for their charges. The prisoners had every reason to fear the worst even before they got onto the  trains that would bring them to Auschwitz. Although their lives were not immediately threatened the Dossinkazerne was nothing less than a ‘waiting room’for death. From the moment of their arrival in the camp the Jews were physically, mentally and morally
broken down by Boden and his cronies. These men were able to satisfy their sadist and perverse instincts without fear of being reprimanded by more senior officers.

Women were generally treated worse by the Nazis. After the war some of the female survivors have recounted their ordeal:

“We were herded into a large hall and ordered to stand in rows and to take our clothes off. The male prisoners, people from the Aufnahme and soldiers stood around. Boden was also present. Some of the women were more ‘thoroughly’ searched by the soldiers...”

By ‘thoroughly’  this witness led us to believe that this was a form of public rape. Another witness gave us a more graphic description of what went on at such events.

“I had to remove every stitch of clothing from my body.  Boden forced me to bend over before ‘searching’ me. I had to remain standing with both of my feet on the ground. Boden placed his hand on my naked body. He touched my genitals. Boden hadn’t said why I had to remove my clothes. I could only imagine that it was because he thought that I had hidden something either in my rectum or in my vagina. Boden appeared to have a great deal of pleasure from this ‘search’. his face beamed. I had to turn round and bend over. Boden didn’t touch me again. I was allowed to get dressed.”

Men also had to undergo this senseless ridicule. Bernard Vander Ham, a 49 year old Belgian Jew of ‘mixed’ blood was often the target of Boden’s bullying, who, often had nothing better to do than to send him fake packages containing, instead of food, a brick. Finally on the cold  night of 4th – 5th March 1943 Boden and Poppe (Flemish SS) after having been drinking, drenched Vander Ham with ice cold water. He was found next morning dead. The official cause of death was registered as ‘cardiac arrest’.

'Feet control' in Mechelen (© Alte Synagog, Essen).

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Vander Ham is the only person to die in the  Dossinkazerne as a direct result of being maltreated; people didn’t die in Mechelen. It was an exception rather than a general rule.
Their stay in the camp was not long enough for death to engulf them. Only 52 deaths were registered out of the 26.000 people who passed through the camp.

Included in these 52 deaths are the victims of a dramatic incident which occurred after the arrest of 145 Jews in Antwerp. En-route to Mechelen the driver and co-driver of the lorry charged with transporting this human cargo stopped at a roadside public house for refreshment. A journey which normally took about half an hour turned out to be one of three hours. Upon arrival at their destination 9 Jews had died as a result of asphyxiation.

If it was not Boden then it was Schmitt who attempted to break the prisoners self esteem. On the eve prior to the departure of ‘Convoy VIII’ Schmitt organised a show for the public humiliation of  a group of religious Jews. The SS then proceeded to roughly cut off their beards and earlocks, paint their clothes with swastikas and force them to dance and sing. This incident is immortalized in one of the rare photographs taken inside the camp. In a separate occurrence, during a PT class, that the prisoners were obliged to attend, the camp commander set his dog on the 20 year old, Herman Hirsch, which resulted in him having his leg amputated.

Humiliation of prisoners in the Dossin Barracks
(© JMDR – Fonds Schmidt).

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The Transfer of Authority to Adjunct-Major Frank

The Dossinkazerne under the Nazis passed through two distinct periods of control. After the brutality of Schmitt came a period of apparent less aggression in the handling of prisoners under Frank. It was a bit of a fluke that led to the transfer of power to Frank and the fall from grace of Schmitt and his henchmen.

As we have already mentioned, from November 1942, the rhythm of the the transport convoys to Auschwitz  slowed down considerably. Jews were now forced to stay in Mechelen for up to 3 months. SS Kurt Asche, who was responsible for Jewish affairs in Brussels decided that “ the camp in Mechelen should become a work camp. Jews should be utilised to produce things for the German Army.” 

Starting from nothing, Schmitt began to organize workshops, producing working clothes,  leather goods and cleaning materials. Prisoners were employed as tailors and seamstresses.
However Schmitt, together with his two accomplices, the deputy commander of the camp, SS Hauptsturmfuerher Rudolf Steckmann and SS sub-lieutenant Karl Mainzhausen who was responsible for the German, Belgian and Jewish personnel in the camp, decided to channel some of the profits from sales into their own pockets. They did this by employing the services of Leon Krynek an incarcerated Jewish business man who was allowed to leave the camp in order to locate suitable outlets for the merchandise which was being produced in the camp.

When Schmitt took furlough and Steckman is ordered to return to Breendonk the Sipo /SD send Adjunct- Major Frank to Mechelen as interim commander of the camp. Frank soon discovered what had been going on and, in April 1943, informed his superiors of this illegal trade.

This resulted in Schmitt being relieved of his duties as commander of the Dossinkazerne but he retained his position at Fort Breendonk where Steckman was appointed as his right hand man. Mainzhausen was sent to the Russian Front. Leon Krynek and the Jews who had been employed in the workshops were sent to Auschwitz on ‘Convoy XX’ which left Mechelen on 19th April 1943.

Frank was appointed commander of the Dossinkazerne. During this, what we may term ‘the second phase’ life in the camp slightly improved. Brutality was to some degree less. Apart from the day prior to the departure of a train to Auschwitz the prisoners received more food. Parcels from outside the camp were handed to the inmates unopened and from time to time prisoners were allowed visitors.

Prisoner's attest signed by Commander Frank
(© JMDR).

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The Gypsies

The gypsies would not see any sort of improvement in their conditions of existence. Their incarceration remainded abominable. In contrast to the Jews the gypsies were locked up in the cellars of the barracks for 23 hours a day;. They were not allowed to receive packets from outside and as a result they all showed signs of malnutrition. They slept on sacks filled with straw , they had no sanitation facilities and received no medical attention. They remained isolated from the rest of the prison population.

The permitted daily one hour of exercise was usually accompanied by brutal humiliation : three musicians were forced to play whilst the SS guards beat the women. Afterwards they were again locked up in the cellars.

The Jewish prisoner Hélène Beer writes in her testimonial:
“It was so that that gypsies lived for a whole month, in a dark hall with closed windows. By the entrance one could easily stumble into barrels of excretement. They stood overflowing  in a corner of the chamber and the stench constantly hung in the air. As if this was not enough the floor was also covered with excretion. The straw mattresses were torn, the mess-tins and cooking pots were black from the smoke”.

Nomads on a Gypsies' cemetery in
Elewijt near Mechelen (© SOMA/CEGES).

Liberation

In the night of  3rd and 4th September 1944 the SS and their sympathisers fled the camp. The 527 prisoners waited obediently in the camp just as Frank had instructed them to do the evening prior to his departure.

On 4th September the City of Mechelen was liberated by the Allies. Apparently nobody had noticed the prisoners who were locked up in the Dossinkazerne.

The liberation of Brussels (© JMDR).

 

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