Red Star Line Museum

Museum of European emigration to America, in the original 1894 boarding sheds

Address Montevideostraat 3, 2000 Antwerpen

The most affecting museum in the city. The Red Star Line ran the trans-Atlantic emigrant service from Antwerp to New York from 1873 to 1934; the building was the boarding sheds where passengers — two million of them — were medically inspected, deloused, and processed for the long voyage. The structure has been kept intact and converted into a museum of European emigration.

The exhibition is built around personal stories — letters, photographs, recorded testimony, individual objects taken on the journey — and works as both history and personal narrative. The most moving room is the medical inspection hall, where the physical traces of the process are most visible. Allow at least two hours; bring tissues. Closed Mondays.

things to do museum
A story
Two million emigrants — most of them from eastern Europe — boarded Red Star Line ships at Antwerp between 1873 and 1934. Among them: Albert Einstein, fleeing Germany in 1933; Israel Beilin, who became Irving Berlin; the parents of Audrey Hepburn. The museum is in the actual sheds where they were processed.

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