Police officers take mandatory lessons at Holocaust museum

Police officers in training are now obliged to follow a series of classes offered by the Kazerne Dossin Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights in Mechelen. Police authorities signed an agreement with the museum yesterday, which was International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The course will look at the events of the Second World War in Belgium relating to the deportation of more than 25,000 Jews and Roma, with a view to teaching police how to better intervene in situations where human rights are under threat. The museum stands on the site of the former Dossin Barracks, where Belgian deportees were gathered before being transported to the death camps (pictured).

Many police groups already visit the museum, “but we wanted to offer something more,” said a museum spokesperson. “We have trained 18 Dutch-speaking and 18 French-speaking officers to teach their colleagues. We’ll be looking at situations from the years 1940 to ’45 to see how the same situation might be tackled today. The insight into those situations is enlightening for police training.”

Federal police chief Catherine De Bolle said that “police officers have an exceptional role to perform in society. By having our officers take part in this educational project, we aim to get away from the classic lessons in human rights and deontology in order to learn in practice how to deal with difficult ethical situations and how to make decisions based on realistic scenarios.”

Between 200 and 500 trainee officers are expected to take the course in a year, with current officers also passing through at a later stage.

photo courtesy of Kazerne Dossin