Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Hollandsche Schouwburg (Holland Theater)

After visting the Dutch Resistance museum, we took a short walk over to the Hollandsche Schouwburg - Holland Theater.

Built in 1892, this theater was a popular theater, running many Dutch plays. During the 1930's many Jewish citizens lived in this area of Amsterdam, so the theater had a large Jewish following.



In 1941 the Germans changed the theater's name to Joodsche Schouwburg - Jewish Theater. After that, only Jewish actors and artists were allowed to perform here.

In 1942 and 1943 the theater became a deportation center for Jews in Amsterdam and surrounding areas - waiting to being taken to transit camps. After the transit camps they were taken to the concentration camps.

Many families were brought to the theater by force and had to wait hours, days, or even weeks inside the theater, unsure of their fate.




Inside the first floor of the theater is a large wall that lists the names of the 6700 families Jews killed by the Nazis. Of the 104,000 individual Jews killed, somewhere around 70,000 of them passed through this theater.

A candle in the center of the floor burns continually as a reminder.

The 2nd floor of the museum contained many individual photos of the families that passed through the theater. Everything was in Dutch so we were not able to read most of it. However, the photos were quite moving.

Many of the photos were of the efforts to remove Jewish children from a nearby child care/ nursery. I had read about this before and was familiar with it and recognized the photos. On one particular day, when the Germans were aggressive attempts to round up Jews, the workers in a nearby nursery saved over 70 Jewish children by smuggling them out in any manner possible - in laundry carts, trash bins, food storage bins, etc. In many situations the children were taken out as the city trains passed and handed off to anyone who opened their arms. When the Germans arrived at the nursery and found that many of the Jewish children were missing, many nursery workers were either executed or sent off to camps.




After World War II ended, the theater was neglected. The building was not used or maintained until the 1960's when the city of Amsterdam decided to create this memorial.

Due to lack of care, the original theater was in a terrible state of disrepair. They were unable to save the original theater and instead built a memorial on its original location. The pillar that you see in the center above is built on a star shape base - the Star of David. The jagged brick walls on either side are the original walls to the actual theater (where the seats were). The common area of the theater was re-built to be the welcome area for the museum (where the family name wall was).



An engraving on the cement wall is in remembrance of the families that passed through these walls.


Wooden tulips with memorial notes attached line the walls of the old theater area. These are left daily by visitors.


Jeff, Justice, and Jagger pause to think about everything we have learned on this day.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jenn you are such a great writer. The story of the nursery workers was so moving.. and I love the Festival Skirts! Maybe you can find one in a second hand store for a really memorable souvenier.
Suzi SF