The sepia-toned passport photos of three individuals, possibly a family, are pasted onto a card with the handwritten words: “Don’t forget us!” This card has helped shape the permanent collection at the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, which opens to the public next week. The museum is the first institution in the Netherlands devoted to telling the full story of the persecution of Jews in the country during World War II. The museum aims to answer the question of how such a large group of people could be removed from their daily lives, and what those lives looked like before and after the war. The museum’s galleries examine the lives of Dutch Jews through displays of clothing, jewelry, suitcases, and other items, portraying them as full-fledged individuals rather than solely as victims. The opening of the museum is a kind of closure to a process of acceptance of this part of Dutch history.
The new museum aims to answer the question of how such a large group of people — 102,000 Jews, but also 220 Romani people, also known as Roma and Sinti — could be removed from their daily lives, and what those lives looked like before and, if they survived, after the war. The museum’s galleries examine the lives of Dutch Jews through displays of clothing, jewelry, suitcases, and other items, portraying them as full-fledged individuals rather than solely as victims. The opening of the museum is a kind of closure to a process of acceptance of this part of Dutch history.
The museum’s galleries examine the lives of Dutch Jews through displays of clothing, jewelry, suitcases, and other items, portraying them as full-fledged individuals rather than solely as victims. The intention is to capture the oppression and the dismantling of the rule of law and freedom for every Jew. The museum’s head curator, Annemiek Gringold, emphasizes the importance of portraying people as full-fledged individuals, rather than solely as victims.
2024-03-05 06:17:06
Source from www.nytimes.com
