Meisjeshuis (Girls' Home)

The Meisjeshuis (Girls' Home) on Albert Grisarstraat was a municipal orphanage in Antwerp. During the summer of 1942, it became a critical shelter for Jewish girls who had been separated from their parents due to arrests and deportations.

Staff members and caregivers at the home worked clandestinely with rescue networks to protect the children, attempting to delay official registrations and coordinate hiding places. Despite these efforts, on September 21, 1942, a systematic German raid led to the arrest and subsequent deportation of the Jewish girls to the Dossin Barracks in Mechelen, and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Very few survived.