Photos: Amsterdam Holocaust Memorials

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Nooit Meer Auschwitz by Jan Wolkers. Artist's comment: "It seemed as if it would be impossible to design a memorial for the site of the urn containing ashes of the victims murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp to be laid to rest in Dutch soil. How can you devise a form to mark a crime which you know in your heart will till be unforgiven when our planet ceases to exist two, or two thousand centuries from now? To attempt to find an image to reflect the ignominy and the suffering transcends the limits of your comprehension. When you look up at the sky it is impossible to imagine the same sun shining over that destruction as indifferently and peacefully as over a meadow filled with flowers. In a vision of justice the blue sky above you cracks apart as if the horrors that took place on earth below have desecrated eternity forever. That is what led me to place these broken mirrors on that small plot of ground above the urn. Here you will never again see the heavens reflected undesecrated."
Nooit Meer Auschwitz.
Nooit Meer Auschwitz.
Nooit Meer Auschwitz.
Nooit Meer Auschwitz.
Nooit Meer Auschwitz.
Nooit Meer Auschwitz.
Heleen Levano's Gypsy Monument--Memorial of War on Museumplein in Amsterdam was dedicated in 1978.
Gypsy Monument--Memorial of War Museumplein.
Gypsy Monument--Memorial of War on Museumplein, detail.
Gypsy Monument--Memorial of War. Inscriptions are in Rom and Dutch.
Monument to Jewish resistance in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam.
Monument to Jewish resistance, detail.
Monument to Jewish resistance. The inscription is from the book of Jeremiah. "I wish that my eyes were fountains of tears, so I could cry day and night for my people who were killed."
Outline of the former boys' orphanage in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam. It was known as Megadlei Yetomin or "guardians of orphans." As many as seventy boys stayed here at one time.
Outline of the former boys' orphanage in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam.
Outline of the former boys' orphanage in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam. In March of 1943, the boys were transported to the Sobibor death camp.
Dock Worker by Mari Andriessen. This statue commemorates the strike called in Amsterdam in February of 1941 to protest the recent round-up of Jews in the Jewish quarter. Each February 25th there is a wreath laying ceremony at the memorial to remembre this event.
Dock Worker by Mari Andriessen.
Dutch National Monument built to commemorate Dutch World War II casualties.
Dutch National Monument.
Dutch National Monument.
Dutch National Monument.
Former City Registry Office. On March 27, 1943, a group of resistance fighters tried to destroy the city registers to keep the Nazi occupation forces from using the information on the citizens of Amsterdam. Unfortunately, the records were packed together too tightly to burn. Twelve of the resistance group were captured and executed.
Memorial plaque to the twelve resistance fighters who were executed for the attack on the City Registry Office.
Commemorative plaque. When the Hollandsche Schouwburg was used as a deportation point, children of those who had assembled there were lodged in a kindergarten across the street. Rescuers were able to save some of the children by hiding behind the tram which passed the kindergarten and smuggling the children to a school two houses down the road. The kindergarten building no longer exists, but this plaque has been placed on the building which now occupies the site of the former kindergarten.
The Walter Süsskindbrug. This wooden drawbridge is named in honor of Walter Süsskind who was able to use his position on the Jewish Council to save many children from deportation.

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