Series of drawings "Life at the Dossin barracks". Collection

Contact Kazerne Dossin Documentation Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu NS-Dokumentationszentrum der Stadt Köln (EL-DE-Haus, Cologne) This collection contains, in colour and black-and-white, six sketches, one painting and 11 ‘educational’ caricature drawings informing the Jewish staff at the Dossin barracks about daily life and procedures at the camp. This art was created by the Jewish artist inmates of the 'Malerstube' (painters workshop), among whom Gyorgy Bekeffi, Irene Spicker-Awret, August (Alexandre) Polak and Kopel Simelovitz. Dagobert Meyer was born in Köln (Cologne) in 1901 and was an opera singer. After his arrest in Antwerp on 9 September 1942, he was interned at the Dossin barracks. His marriage to an Aryan woman, Lucia Sophie Müller, saved him from deportation. In February or March 1943, camp commander Schmitt appointed Dagobert Meyer as the Jewish chief supervisor of the Dossin barracks. When he was liberated from the camp on 8 May 1943, the Jewish Council explicitly requested that he would continue his work, to which Dagobert agreed with the consent of commandant Frank. Dagobert Meyer was a very authoritarian figure and was corrupted by his power. After liberation, several former Dossin inmates pressed charges against him, but these charges were eventually dropped. He himself testified in favour of two Flemish collaborators who worked at the Dossin barracks.