Lagrené family. Collection

On 15 January 1944, 353 Roma and Sinti were deported from the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks) to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport Z. Amongst the deportees were at least 27 members of the extended Lagrené family. Those deported also included Anton alias Antoine Lagrené who was born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, on 13 January 1931, and his aunt Josephine Lagrené, who was born on 12 June 1929 in Antwerp, Belgium. Upon arrival in Auschwitz-Birkenau all Roma and Sinti were interned in the Familienlager. The number Z9130 was tattooed on Anton’s arm, the number Z9834 on Josephine’s arm. Both children survived deportation and were repatriated after Liberation. In 2006 Anton and Josephine Lagrené were photographed by Monique Heddebaut, a French historian and researcher. In 2008, she published a study on the persecution of Jews and Roma in the Douai arrondissement. In 2013, Heddebaut obtained her Master's degree from Lille University with a dissertation on the persecution of Sinti and Roma. Her historiography on transport Z, taking Roma and Sinti from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 15 January 1944, was published in 2018. Anton Lagrené passed away on 22 February 2020, Josephine Lagrené on 22 October 2020.

On 18 February 2008, Monique Heddebaut kindly donated the two photos in this collection to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin.

Monique Heddebaut, 2006