The Kazerne Dossin, a former Nazi transit camp in occupied Mechelen, will host a temporary exhibition starting on 20 March dedicated to athletes at Auschwitz during the Second World War.
The memorial will present letters, photos, and testimonies tracing the stories surrounding sport in the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp.
The exhibition will reveal the dual facets of sport in the camp. The Nazis used exercise to enforce discipline and punishment. Meanwhile, between themselves, detainees engaged in other sports, including football, volleyball, and basketball, as well as intellectual games such as chess.
"It was generally not seen as a competition but as a way to pass the time outside of forced labour. These sports existed despite the ongoing extermination," explained Renata Koszyk, the exhibition’s curator, in a statement.
Illustration picture taken during the re-opening of the 'Kazerne Dossin', a memorial, museum and documentation centre on the Holocaust and human rights, Sunday 26 January 2020, in Mechelen. Credit: Belga
The exhibition also looks at the presence of Olympic and national sporting champions in the corridors of Auschwitz, such as the Belgian footballer Salomon ‘Sam’ Meljado, who did not survive the camp, and the Polish boxer Tadeusz Pietrzykowski.
The exhibition, created by the Auschwitz-Birkenau National Museum and enriched by Belgian stories, can be seen from 20 March to 10 December 2025 at the Kazerne Dossin barracks in Mechelen.
