Relieken - Reliques. Collection

Contact Kazerne Dossin Documentation Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu Archives Service for War Victims - National Archives of Belgium The “Relics” collection comprises 3,065 envelopes. Each contains personal documents confiscated by the Aufnahme (camp administration) at the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks) upon arrival of a detainee at the barracks. The documents range from photographs to letters, ID cards, university diplomas, marriage certificates, etc. Each envelope refers to a single detainee or a family. Most of these detainees were eventually deported via Transport XX to XXVI. No “Relics” exist for deportees from Transports I to XIX. However, several dozen of the envelopes contain documents of detainees who passed away at the Dossin barracks or who died at the Breendonk camp for political prisoners, who were released from the Dossin barracks or who were deported to smaller camps such as Buchenwald and Ravensbrück. The SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks) opened its doors on 27 July 1942. Three non-Jewish secretaries from Mechelen were hired to help at the Aufnahme. The other employees of the camp administration were recruited among the young Jewish girls who arrived at the SS-Sammellager on 27 July. Work at the Aufnahme was divided into two sections : the administration of the camp led by SS-Hauptscharführer Max Boden and the confiscation of Jewish property led by representative of the Brüsseler Treuhandgesellschaft Erich Crull. The employees at the Aufnahme, mostly inmates themselves, worked day and night to register all Jewish prisoners arriving at the SS-Sammellager. They also drafted the deportation lists, distributed cardboard identification tags, physically searched newly arrived detainees and completed confiscation forms. The Aufnahme continued to operate until the liberation of the SS-Sammellager (Dossin barracks) on 4 September 1944. A name index is available at the Kazerne Dossin documentation centre.