Holland: Effort to Improve Amsterdam's Zeeburg Cemetery

Holland: Effort to Improve Amsterdam's Zeeburg Cemetery
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Thousands of foreign tourists visit some of Amsterdam's famous Jewish sites every year, notably the great Esnoga, or Portuguese synagogue (1675). Tens of thousands of Dutch attend the exhibits and events at the Joods Historich Museum, located in a group of historic Ashkenazi synagogues, including the Great Synagogue (1671). Art historians are familiar with the old Jewish cemetery of Ouderkirk with its many elaborately carved and inscribed gravestones.  But few people - within Holland or abroad - are aware of the great Zeeburg cemetery, reputed to be Europe's largest Jewish cemetery, containing between 100,000 and 200,000 graves, and now neglected and in ruin. (click here for photos).

According to Jan Stoutenbeek and Paul Vigeveno (Jewish Amsterdam, 2003) the Zeeburg Cemetery was opened in 1714 and because it was in walking distance to Amsterdam it became the resting place of the city's poor Jews who could not afford the contribution to the Jewish Community allowing burial at the Muiderberg Cemetery.

By the 20th century, Zeeburg was filled, and a new cemetery at Diemen was consecrated. Zeeburg fell out of use, and the after the the relatives and descendants of the buried there were mostly killed in the Holocaust, and the cemetery was left to fall into disrepair, most recently serving used for paintball games by local teenagers.

On Sunday, October 30, 2011, Amsterdam’s Stichting Eerherstel Joodse Begraafplaats Zeeburg (Rehabilitation Foundation for Jewish Cemetery Zeeburg) began a collaborative program for Moroccan and Jewish youth to clean the large and neglected Zeeburg Jewish cemetery. On six Sundays, as many as 100 young people will collaborate to improve the condition of the cemetery and in the process to learn more about the history of Jews of Amsterdam.

The program to engage young people in the protection of the cemetery was initiated by Frans Stuy and Jaap Meijers who in contacted the Foundation for Rehabilitation Zeeburg. Jaap Meijers said "The cemetery is completely overgrown, it's a jungle. There is a huge wall built around it and making it impossible for regular visitors to visit. We are now looking for the original gate, which is still somewhere, and with the the help of young people, to make it presentable again. Of course we also hope that it will initiate awareness. "

For more information on the cemetery and plans for its restoration go to the Foundation webpage.

Holland: Project to Commemorate Former Jewish Residents

Amsterdam, Holland. Monument to Jewish Resistance in WWII. Photo: Samuel Gruber

Amsterdam homeowners asked to commemorate former Jewish owners

In a new effort to remember the everyday lives of Jews killed in the Holocaust, in the spirit the highly successful German Stolpersteine project ("Stones of the Vanished" or "Stumbling Stones") of which I have previously written, a new effort to mark the houses of former Jewish residents of Holland has been announced. This project is in its infancy and it remains to see what interest and action it will inspire.

In addition to the internationally known Anne Frank House, hone of the most visited tourist sites in Amsterdam; and the Jewish Historical Museum, one of the best Jewish historical and cultural venues in Europe; Amsterdam also already has numerous monuments and plaques marking Jewish heritage and Holocaust sites and and commemorating Holocaust victims. The best on-line guide to the Jewish history of Amsterdam on the museum's website.

The following article is from Associated Press was published in Haaretz:

More than 70 percent of Holland's wartime Jewish population were killed by the Nazis; The dutch will mark the end of the war on May 4 with solemn ceremonies of remembrance.

By The Associated Press

A commemoration committee is asking thousands of Amsterdam homeowners to mark their houses if a former Jewish resident was arrested or deported to Nazi death camps during World War II.

The May 4-5 Committee, named for the date of the Netherlands' liberation from German occupation in 1945, made posters available Friday for display in windows of the former Jewish homes.

The poster reads: "1 of the 21,662 houses where Jews lived who were murdered in World War II."

Residents can look on the committee's website to see if their house had been occupied by a Jewish family during the war and the names of the people who had lived there.

More than 70 percent of Holland's wartime Jewish population were killed by the Nazis. The Dutch mark the end of the war on May 4 with solemn ceremonies of remembrance, followed the next day by parties and music to mark Liberation Day.

The poster was the initiative of Frits Rijksbaron, a marketing executive who discovered the title deed to his new home showed that it had once belonged to a Jewish family.

He told Dutch broadcaster NOS that he hoped to remind Amsterdam's citizens of the horrors of the Nazis' sweep of their city, during which some 61,700 Jews were arrested and killed.

He wanted "to show how big a trauma it was for the Jews and for Amsterdam, and how Jewish Amsterdam was."

Holland: Westerbork Shed Where Anne Frank Worked Destroyed in Fire

Holland: Westerbork Shed Where Anne Frank Worked Destroyed in Fire

(ISJM) On July 20th Dutch news reported reported that a shed in the vicinity the former Westerbork transit camp, near Groningen in the Netherlands, where Anne Frank worked before her deportation to Bergen-Belsen, was destroyed by fire.(for more on Westerbork also click here)

According to DutchNews.nl, the shed, has,

been used for storage on a farm in Veendam since 1957, was about to be dismantled and taken back to Westerbork to form part of the permanent exhibition there. 'It was an extremely important piece of war heritage,' said Dirk Mulder of the Westerbork memorial centre in the Telegraaf. 'There are no more barracks at Westerbork, so this is a great loss.'

Anne Frank was imprisoned and worked at Westerbork in the late summer of 1944 after her Jewish family was captured in their Amsterdam hiding place - now known worldwide as the Anne Frank House.

According to Mulder, Anne Frank and her sister Margo worked there for about four weeks in a factory dismantling batteries.

According to DutchNews.nl:

The memorial centre had been in talks with the owner of the barracks for 15 to 20 years, the paper said. 'He was aware of the historic value of the shed and did not want any money for it,' said Mulder. 'But he needed storage space and did not get a permit to build a replacement. He finally did get permission.'

Police will begin an investigation into the cause of the fire once asbestos released in the blaze has been cleared up, the paper said.

Mulder said he was aware of one other barracks still in its original condition which is currently being used to house pigs.

During the Nazi occupation of Holland, more than 100,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps from Westerbork.

Holland: Liberal Congregation of Gelderland to Occupy Synagogue Empty of Jews Since 1943

Holland: Liberal Congregation of Gelderland to Occupy Synagogue Empty of Jews Since 1943

by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) In the Dutch province of Gelderland a Liberal Jewish community is restoring an old synagogue as its new home. The Jewish Dutch population in the area was decimated during World War II with almost 90% of this group being deported to Nazi camps. A small number of survivors reestablished communities in a few towns in the province. In 1965 survivors and newcomers established a Liberal congregation - eventually named the Liberal Jewish Congregation of Gelderland (LJG) that now comprises 70 families and continues to grow. Since 2005, LJG has been negotiating to reuse the former synagogue of Dieren, built in 1884, as its home. The building has not seen Jewish use since 1943, and was sold in 1952, and most recently has been a church.

A group of Jewish community members started a foundation (Friends of the Dieren Synagogue) with membership drawn from the LJG, descendants of Jewish families from Dieren, and representatives of the town with the purpose of restoring the synagogue as a center for Progressive Jewish religious life and for general cultural activities. With support of the municipal, provincial and national governments and with private funding, the foundation acquired the synagogue building in 2007. A national Dutch fund and the province of Gelderland have each committed significant funding for the needed renovations. Additional funding of about $400,000 needs to be raised to complete the first restoration phase.

The Dieren synagogue is one of the few surviving synagogues in Gelderland – a province in east-central Holland. The Winterswijk synagogue was officially rededicated in 1951 and restored between 1982 and 1984. There is a small synagogue in Aalten that was rededicated in 1986. The former Dieserstraat synagogue in Zutphen was restored in 1985. The Arnhem Synagogue was restored for the community there and rededicated in 2003. A former synagogue is now a private house in Bredenvoort.

For history of the Jews of Dieren see: http://www.jhm.nl/netherlands.aspx?ID=44

Dieren was also the site of a slave labor camp in 1942, until the Jewish prisoners were sent to Westerbork, and then to Nazi death camps in 1943. A monument was erected to the memory of the victim in 1998.

The World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) in New York will accept contributions for the project and to transmit them to the Netherlands. If you wish to donate, your check should be made out to WUPJ and sent to their office at 633 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017-6778. On the memo line of your check, include the words "Friends of the Dieren Synagogue." Contributions by US taxpayers are tax-deductible. The WUPJ is a charitable non-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code.

From Europe, contributions can be made directly to the Foundation, whose web site is: www.dedierensesjoel.nl. The website also has photos, a pre-war architectural plan of the synagogue, and other materials.

I thank Amy Ollendorf of Minneapolis, MN for informing me about this project.