In Memory Of

I found it by accident, although I knew it was there, I’ve passed it from the street often enough. A brick wall, in warm, dappled, autumnal light, with a name etched on each brick. A name, a date and an age: 102,000 names, with another 1000 bricks with no name representing the unknown who died. The names are sorted by alphabetical order and it seems many women hyphenated their name on marriage so what emerges is a picture of extensive interlinked families. At the base of each wall is a long line of white stones put there not by the designer, but by visitors, to mark a death.

This is the National Holocaust Names Memorial opened in 2021, commemorating the Dutch citizens and residents killed in the Holocaust. Yes Anne Frank is listed, as is her mother Edith Frank-Hollander and her sister Margot.

On top of each brick wall float four mirrored three dimensional shapes, reflecting back the light, the trees and the surrounding buildings. From the ground it’s hard to understand what the shapes are but from above they are four letters in Hebrew, which translate as “In memorium”. The choices of materials is very deliberate, we’re meant to touch the bricks and feel the history and we’re meant to reflect on the history, that “in memory” floats above us like a thought cloud.

It’s a small site, sandwiched between a busy road and the H’Art museum (formerly the Hermitage), and it’s in the heart of what was once a thriving Jewish neighbourhood. There’s a quiet humility in the use of brick, many of the people named would have lived in brick buildings in this part of the city and in cities around the country. I like that the “memory” floats above and feels tethered to their names. It’s a quiet space despite the location, and although the primary component is walls, they are built to invite you in rather than shut you out. Come in, reflect and contemplate the names whisper.

You can read more about the design choices and the designer on the memorial site. You can also make a donation for the memorials maintenance, and you can do that as a straight donation or by adopting a brick (for which you’ll get a certificate). To visit the memorial take the Amsterdam Metro to Waterlooplein and use the exit for Jonas Daniel Meijerplein. The monument is on the corner of the Nieuwe Herengracht and Westerstraat.

Remembrance

I am moved by the silence,
No cars, no bikes, no telephones.
All stand silent, and children are hushed.
I think of my great-uncles who fought in France,
And came home across oceans.

I think of the others who never came home,
It’s them we’re here to remember.
The battles, the wounds, the fear,
The thousands, the millions who died.
And a church bell tolls the hour

The millions of ghosts, who perished
Without even signing up for the fight.
There’s a plaque on the church wall
A local resistance remembered.
And a breeze moves, the band plays.

We lay our flowers in remembrance,
Officials with wreaths, children with tulips
The band marches off the square
The crowd melts back to their lives
One minute of silence. So small a tribute.

In memory…

Flowers surround the memorial plaque

I spotted these flowers arranged on the ground on Voetboogstraat today, they surround a plaque commemorating the death of a young man. Today, 17 August, is the anniversary of his death.

The text on the memorial tells the story; Four drunk guys came into the Vootboogstraat looking for a fight. They hit eight people all together; cafe-goers who were sitting eating fries, a tramp, bystanders who tried to stop the violence. Joes Kloppenburg called out “cut it out!”. He was beaten to death. He was twentysix. Above the plaque is a sign saying “Help”, a reminder of some unanswered cries of help.