Why don’t we do Holocaust Memorial Day in the Netherlands?
The date for Holocaust Memorial Day was chosen for a reason: on February 27, 1945, the Russian Red Army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where more than a million people, mainly Jews, were murdered. The memorial day developed into a concept in UN member states, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Traditionally, various commemorative activities have been held in the Netherlands on and around February 27, but it never became a national day of commemoration. How much sense would that make? Emile Schrijver, director of the Jewish Historical Quarter, has doubts. “We already have the annual Holocaust commemoration in Amsterdam’s Wertheim Park, on the last Sunday of February, the May 4 commemoration of course, the Open Jewish Houses initiative and Theater na de Dam. The Netherlands is further filled with Stolper stone, there is the online Jewish monument and there are countless local commemorations in which students can play a role. The Holocaust should simply be given a safe place in education.”
Eddo Verdoner, the first National Coordinator for Countering Anti-Semitism, agrees. “Every student should visit a historical site. For example, at the National Holocaust Names Monument in Amsterdam, which is very educational.” Furthermore, commemoration does not depend on one date for him and ‘it is best to have more, all year round’. That’s why last year we made a plan to commemorate ‘broader’, with ongoing campaigns.
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