264: Confronting the Remnants of Hate on the Path to Remembrance

What I Learned During My Summer Vacation - Part 2

“…the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget.” — Tim O’Brien from The Things They Carried

"The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” — Attributed to German journalist, satirist, and pacifist Kurt Tucholsky.

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The Takeaway

In this episode, I trace the mental and physical journey I took recently in the Netherlands to grasp the murder of more than one hundred thousand Dutch Jews during WWII at the hands of the Nazis. I wanted to move beyond the number and get to the human beings.

Physically, the journey took me to several Holocaust-related sites in Amsterdam: the old Jewish Quarter, the Anne Frank House (Annex), the old Dutch Theatre, the Dutch Holocaust Memorial, and of high interest, the sidewalks of Amsterdam. And outside Amsterdam to the Westerbork transit camp.

Part of my mental journey involved moving beyond the human tendency to see Anne Frank as symbolic of all Dutch Jews who were murdered. But the larger mental issue was confronting the remnants of hate I saw and how they drove me toward hate.

The following photographs are referenced in my narrative.

The former Dutch Theatre in Amsterdam served as a holding area for the Jews before they were put on trains to Westerbork. It is now an open-air memorial.

A group of Stolpersteine – stumbling stones – I found in front of one apartment.

A couple who were arrested in December 1942 and eventually murdered in Auschwitz.

The roll call area at Westerbork, where the prisoners would assemble for headcount. The site is now the memorial for the 102,000 Dutch Jews murdered during the Holocaust. Each of the small blocks represents one person.

Part of the Dutch Holocaust Memorial in Amsterdam. The walls contain bricks, each bearing the name of a Dutch Jew murdered during the Holocaust. The walls form four letters that translate to “In Memory of.”

Show Credits

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