Mémorial national aux Martyrs juifs de Belgique – Nationaal Gedenkteken aan de Joodse Martelaren van België. Collection

In 1961 the Union des déportés juifs de Belgique – Vereniging van Joodse Weggevoerden in België (UDJB) [Association of Jewish Deportees of Belgium], presided by Maurice Pioro, launched the idea for the creation of a national memorial dedicated to Jews from Belgium who perished during the Holocaust. As the Dossin barracks in Mechelen, where the former SS-Sammellager had been located, were still being used by the Belgian army as a training center, a different location had to be found. Joseph Bracops, mayor of Anderlecht and a former political prisoner himself, subsequently offered the UDJB a plot between Rue des Goujons and Rue Emile Carpentier in his municipality. On 13 March 1964 a design competition for the memorial was launched, which was won by architects André Godart and Odon Dupire. The first brick of the memorial was laid on 28 March 1965. A cylinder with ashes from Auschwitz was placed underneath. On 15 July 1965 the Mémorial national aux Martyrs juifs de Belgique – Nationaal Gedenkteken aan de Joodse Martelaren van België [National Memorial to the Jewish Martyrs of Belgium] became an official association, when its statutes were published in the Belgisch Staatsblad – Moniteur belge [Belgian Official Journal]. Among the association’s founders were Maurice Pioro, David (Dov) Liebermann, Marc Goldberg, Sally Dziubek, Kalman Goldberg and Jacques Elkiner. In May 1966 local branches of the association were established in Brussels (presided by Bernard Tarnowski) and in Antwerp (presided by P. Ferstenberg). Both branches then together assembled a national committee, the Comité national du Mémorial, of which baron Jean Bloch was elected president. While the national committee had to supervise the build, the local committees had to focus on collecting sufficient funds for the project. On 4 April 1967 the contracts for the actual construction were signed during a press reveal. The inauguration of the memorial took place on 19 April 1970. The final design consisted of a hexagon, which had been sunk into the landscape. The names of 24.036 Jewish victims from Belgium were carved into granite slates which covered three of the walls. A Menorah dominated the center of the construction, while the crypt contained documents and artwork on the Holocaust in Belgium. The space around the memorial was renamed Square des Martyres Juifs. On 9 August 1972 the association Mémorial national aux Martyrs juifs de Belgique – Nationaal Gedenkteken aan de Joodse Martelaren van België evolved into the Fondation Mémorial national aux Martyrs juifs de Belgique – Stichting Nationaal Gedenkteken aan de Joodse Martelaren van België [National Memorial Foundation to the Jewish Martyrs of Belgium], presided by baron Jean Bloch and Joseph Komkommer. The Foundation became responsible for the upkeep of the memorial. In addition, two committees were founded under auspices of the Foundation, each with its own specific goal: the ‘Monuments aux Héros’ committee had to create an additional monument on the memorial’s grounds dedicated to Jewish resistance fighters while the ‘Hommage aux Sauveurs’ committee had to organize a national celebration in honor of Belgians that had rescued Jews. The monument for the resistance fighters was inaugurated on 6 May 1979, while the celebration for the Belgian rescuers took place on 12 October 1980. From the late 1970s until the early 2000s the memorial deteriorated and has been vandalized multiple times. These inflictions reached a cruel peak with the break-in in 2006 when the urn from Auschwitz was destroyed and the ashes were spread out. Since then, the memorial is only accessible on appointment. In 2009 the Fondation du judaïsme de Belgique and the Brussels region attributed financial help to the memorial and since then a cleaning and renovation operation, led by architect Isidore Zielonka, has been finalized. The memorial has also become a Brussels landmark. In 2020 the memorial’s 50th anniversary was celebrated under the lead of Foundation president Claude Marinower. Plans are made to add a wall with the names of Belgian Righteous among the Nations to the site.

In 2003 Maurice Pioro, founding member of the Mémorial national aux Martyrs juifs de Belgique – Nationaal Gedenkteken aan de Joodse Martelaren van België, donated the original items in this collection to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin.

Maurice Pioro, founding member of the Mémorial national aux Martyrs juifs de Belgique – Nationaal Gedenkteken aan de Joodse Martelaren van België, 2003