The Dossin barracks were built as Habsburg cavalry quarters in 1756 and pressed into service in 1942 as the SS-Sammellager Mecheln, where Jews and Roma arrested across Belgium were held before deportation. The location was chosen for its convenient rail link halfway between Brussels and Antwerp, the two cities with the largest Jewish populations.
The memorial occupies one wing of the original barracks across the canal; the museum, in a stark Bob Van Reeth building opposite, tells the story of the deportations and frames them inside the longer history of mass violence and human rights. The portrait wall — every face of every deportee whose photograph survived — is the unforgettable part of the visit.