MSTERDAM.- 80 years after World War II, the Netherlands will open its first museo of the Holocaust hoping to raise awareness as the war in Gaza causes an increase in antisemitism.
Striped uniforms from Auschwitz, buttons taken from clothes torn off upon arriving at the Sobibor death camp, emotional letters and photos: the museum exhibits 2,500 objects, many of them never before seen by the public.
Before the war and the Nazi occupation, the Netherlands was home to a vibrant Jewish community of about 140,000 people, mainly in Amsterdam. But by the time the Holocaust ended, 75% of them – 102,000 people – had been murdered.
Museum location
The building where the museum is located, a former kindergarten in Amsterdam’s historic Jewish quarter, played a crucial role in Dutch Holocaust history.
In front is a theater where Jewish families were taken to await deportation to the death camps. The children were separated and taken to the kindergarten for deportation.
Some 600 children were smuggled out, often in boxes or baskets under the noses of Nazi guards, and taken to safety by the Dutch resistance.
Visitors can walk through the escape corridor, where the children were taken, most of whom never saw their family or friends again.
Photos of children who did not have the same luck adorn the walls, all dead in the extermination fields.
“In a few hundred square meters of central Amsterdam you have the history of deportation, collaboration, the dark part of history,” curator Annemiek Gringold told AFP. “And on the other side, you have a building that represents the humanity, the solidarity and the tremendous courage of the Gentile rescuers who risked themselves to save Jewish lives,” she added.
Texts of anti-Jewish laws imposed by the Nazis were hung on the museum’s walls, including a 1942 requirement to wear a yellow Star of David.
The laws tell a brutal history of persecution, in which Jews were prohibited from going to parks and rewards were offered for reporting Jews to the authorities.
To give a face to some of the thousands of murdered Jews, the museum presents the portrait of some victims with a brief text about their lives.
“We tell the story of extreme humiliation and dignify the victims by presenting their objects in a very special way,” Gringold said.
exclusion
The museum will be inaugurated on Sunday by King Willem-Alexander and its opening comes at a time of growing anti-Semitism in the Netherlands.
The number of anti-Semitic incidents will double in 2023, the government coordinator against anti-Semitism reported in February.
In one case, vandals painted swastikas on a synagogue in the southern town of Middelburg.
Amsterdam allocated 900,000 euros ($976,000) to the security of the museum, which has large rocks in front to prevent a car attack.
The Dutch Jewish Cultural Quarter association, which manages the museum, said it was seriously concerned with the impact of the war in Gaza on the Netherlands, which has led to a rise in anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and polarization.
“It is regrettable that the opening of the National Holocaust Museum coincides with this war. It makes our mission more urgent,” the association said in a statement.
According to Gringold, the museum displays several warnings applicable to today, some about propaganda, nationalism and the weakening of the rule of law.
“I believe that each people needs to know their history, to be aware of what human beings are capable of doing to others and with others,” he said.
Roosje Steenhart-Drukker, an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor, contributed the shoes she was wearing when she was two years old when her Jewish parents left her, in the hope that she would be found.
“I am extremely happy that our history has not been lost after so much tragedy, so much sadness,” he told AFP. “But here we continue.”
FUENTE: AFP
