Breendonk

Breendonk - darkometer rating : 7 - A former fortress, originally built as part of the defensive fortifications around the nearby city of Antwerp, Belgium . During the country's occupation by Germany in WWII , the fort was used as a prison and as a transit camp in the Holocaust . > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: Fort Breendonk, constructed from 1909, is a typical brick and concrete fortress of the type that was still deemed crucial for defence purposes at the time. It did indeed see some action in World War One – and in continued to be in military use between the wars. However, it earns its place on the dark tourism map through its (mis-)use by the Nazis during the German occupation of Belgium in WWII , when the place was turned into a dungeon for political prisoners and a transit camp for Jews who were later deported to the death camps in the east during the Holocaust . As such it was in use from September 1940 to September 1944. A comparatively small place, it is estimated that some 3600 victims of the Nazis passed through Breendonk, about half of whom did not survive. After its liberation by Allied forces on 4 September 1944, the fort was then used to imprison Nazi collaborators, and subsequently served as a state prison for a brief period. As early as 1947 it was turned into a memorial. Initially more a place of pilgrimage, the site was subsequently commodified more. A makeover in 2003 added panels and illustrations as well as audiovisual elements. Until the opening of the new museum at Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen , Breendonk was thus a premier site commemorating the Nazi terror in Belgium and the Holocaust .