Dutch Holocaust remembered following 75th birthday of Auschwitz liberation

Palinurus

The Living Force
Source: A Dutch Artist and Engineer Has Created an Astonishing New Holocaust Memorial Using 104,000 Uncanny Glowing Stones

How a Dutch Artist and Engineer Created an Otherworldly New Holocaust Memorial Using 104,000 Glowing Stones

Each of the Dutch designer and engineer's glowing stones represents a World War II Dutch-Jewish victim.

Nina Siegal - January 6, 2020

DAAN-ROOSEGAARDE-15-BY-REBECCA-MELL-1024x683.jpg

Daan Roosegaarde by Rebecca Mell


When he was asked to create a memorial to the 104,000 Jewish, Roma, and Sinti people from the Netherlands who were killed during the Holocaust, Daan Roosegaarde hesitated. The Dutch artist, engineer, and master of light-based art and design was not sure at first whether to accept such a delicate and complicated assignment.

“It was a big discussion in my studio,” he tells Artnet News of the commission, which commemorates the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz this year. “It’s such a big topic and it’s very sensitive, of course. We were thinking, ‘Should we do this or not?’ ”

But then, as he always does, Roosegaarde delved into the research. He read about the World War II-era persecution, mass deportation, and murder of Dutch residents, and he spoke to survivors and the families of victims. He looked at other memorial sites, including Amsterdam’s planned Dutch Holocaust Memorial of Names, which is being helmed by the Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind.

One of the stories he says he heard a few times was about passengers on a train to Westerbork, a concentration camp in the northeast of the country. The wooden door to their train compartment did not fully close, and light leaked through a small gap at the top. Everyone was looking at that slanting light, he learned. “Because there was light, there was hope,” says Roosegaarde. “And that’s my vocabulary.” With that, the so-called master of light confirmed his participation in the project. (Scholar David Barnouw points out that deportations by cattle train to Westerbok were infrequent, but rather occurred from the concentration camps to the death camps farther east.)

Next week, the fruits of his labor, the Holocaust memorial project “Levenslicht,” will be unveiled to the public on January 16 in Rotterdam. Some 104,000 glowing stones, small enough to hold in your hand, will be seen together as a monumental installation before individual groups of 500 are disseminated to 256 municipalities, where they will continue to glow at night in memory of the lives lost across the country.

LEVENSLICHTHerdenkingsteendagnacht-1024x683.jpg

Levenlicht stones. Courtesy Studio Roosegaarde


Sculpting With Light

Be it digital, natural, or phosphorescent, illumination is Roosegaarde’s medium of choice. Although he’s working with brand new technologies, the 41-year-old says that he connects his work to the hallowed Dutch tradition of working with light, which was established in the 17th century by landscape painters like Jan van Goyen and Salomon von Ruysdael, his personal hero.

“They used paint and canvas and I use microchips and LEDs,” Roosegaarde says. “It’s the same message, but just a different language. They were obsessed with skies, with [natural] light, and they ran their painting workshops as collectives. I feel very much connected to the Dutch landscape tradition, how they think, how they work, and how they dream.”

The multi-talented creative is as acclaimed for urban design projects, such as his sustainable glow-in-the dark Smart Highways and his “starry night” Van Gogh-inspired bike path, as he is for his wildly popular museum exhibitions that plunge viewers into baths of light.

An exhibition of his work at the Groninger Museum, titled “Presence” and on view until January 12, features a phosphorescent landscape that changes color and shape as visitors move around it; bodies are cast into lingering shadows on walls and floors, outlines of hands are mapped onto movable globes, and children make snow angels in dustings of glowing beads. It’s very Instagram-ready.

VANGOGHROOSEGAARDE-04-1024x683.jpg

Van Gogh Bikepath is a light emitting bicycle path which charges at day-time and glows at night. It won the Best Future Concept,
Dutch Design Award, Accenture Innovation Award, and INDEX Award Denmark. Courtesy Studio Roosengaarde



Roosegaarde sees his work not as merely playful uses of new technologies, but as a way to address societal and environmental concerns. “I think of us as living not in a utopia, but in a protopia—a term [American writer and editor] Kevin Kelly coined,” he says. “Step-by-step, we’re trying to improve things. We do not know what the future looks like, so we need to invest in new ideas to survive and to evolve.”

Roosegaarde’s studio, which is located in a former glass factory in the port city of Rotterdam, has been focusing its efforts on imagining new landscapes that value clean air, clean water, and clean energy. “But there is something beyond those values, [which is] humanity, and that’s why [the memorial project] ‘Levenslicht’ is connected,” he adds.

The upcoming monument takes its name from the Dutch words for “living light” or “the light of life.” Each of the 104,000 luminous stones, which represents a Dutch victim of the Holocaust, emits an ethereal, bluish glow in the dark. Roosegaarde says the concept is based on the idea of creating light in darkness as a metaphor for hope in a time when nationalism, xenophobia, and acts of hate are on the rise throughout the Western world.

“We’ll have one big statement, where you see the madness, the killing machine,” he says. “Then you’ll see how it spread.” After the stones’ reveal, groups will be distributed at various outdoor locations in participating towns.

GLOWING-NATURE-ROOSEGAARDE-02-1024x683.jpg

Glowing Nature is an interactive installation with light emitting algae. Courtesy Studio Roosengaarde


Roosegaarde said he was shocked to learn that the victims came from all over the Netherlands, hailing from almost every town or city. About 80 percent of the Dutch-Jewish population was killed in the World War II genocide, the largest proportion in Western Europe, second only to Poland. The idea for the small stones stemmed from Roosegaarde learning that Jewish mourners do not leave flowers at Jewish cemeteries, but instead place stones or pebbles on the gravestones of the dead. Each of his stones, which can fit in the palm of a hand, is unique.

“It’s something new but it’s something old, it’s history but it’s also the future,” he says of the project. “It’s also a place where we can come together, where we don’t use words or logos or political ideas or conversation, but we just look and wonder. I hope it will create the kind of experience of remembering and thinking about what we want the future to look like.”


Levenslicht will be on view in Rotterdam beginning January 16 at Stieltjesstraat/ Eva Cohen-Hartogkade.


Related:
Go-ahead for Holocaust wall in Amsterdam as court throws out objections - DutchNews.nl
Dutch Holocaust Memorial of Names
Dutch Holocaust Memorial of Names - Libeskind

Ashes in the Wind: The Destruction of Dutch Jewry: Dr. Jacob Presser: 9780285638136: Amazon.com: Books
Jacques Presser - Wikipedia
 
@Palinurus ,

Thank you for this thread. I have been thinking about the meaning of the "Holocaust". There are so many aspects of it's meaning that I think we might benefit from honoring the lives lost to this endless "time loop" which is "the madness, the killing machine".

We are now facing a repeat of the Nazi test run and humanity needs to reflect on the failures of the past in order to not repeat the same mistakes.

We have been locked into believing this was a racial event in history designed to eliminate the Jews. I think it is a much broader context that includes humanity as a whole.

It does not seem a coincidence that you would post this. If you do not mind I think this would be an excellent place to discuss how the "Holocaust" has affected so many countries and people.

Session 21 January 1995:
Q: (L) Okay, recently I read a couple of books Jan gave me, "Knight in Shining Armor" and "Replay". Both of these books described time travel.

A: No, not finished with answer. Do you understand the gravity of last response?

Q: (L) They are time travelers, they can move forward and backward in time, they can play games with our heads... (T) They can set up the past to create a future they want. (D) They can organize things so that they can create the energy that they need... (L) They can also make things look good, make them feel good, make them seem good, they can make you have an idea one minute, and then the next minute, create some sort of situation that confirms that idea...

A: When you asked how long, of course it is totally unlimited, is it not?

Q: (L) That's not good. If they were to move back through space time and alter an event in our past, would that alteration in the past instantaneously alter our present as well?

A: Has over and over and over.

Q: (D) So they do it over and over and over, constantly? (L) So, at each...

A: You just are not yet aware, and have no idea of the ramifications!!!

Q: (L) We're getting a little glimmer! Yeah, I do, a little! (T) The ramifications of being able to move in and out of time and manipulate it the way you want (Jan/Laura) And the ramifications of what they're doing to us; what they are doing to us and what they will do to us, over and over. (F) What did it say about over and over? (L) So, in other words, our only real prayer in this whole damn situation is to get out of this density level. That's what they're saying, that's what it sounds like to me.

A: Close.

Q: (L) Because, otherwise, we're just literally, as in that book, stuck in the replay over and over and over, and the Holocaust could happen over and over, and we could just, you know... Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun... over and over and over again. (T) We're stuck in a time loop; they're putting us in a time loop. (J) Are we in a time loop?

A: Yes.


Q: (D) I have a question about... there was a... (PAUSE) Mankind has found it necessary for some reason or other to appoint time for some reason or other. The only reason I can see is to have a means of telling, like in verbal or written communications...

A: Control mechanism.

Q: (T) Is there a way for us to break the control mechanism? Besides moving to 4th density? (D) That was part...

A: Nope.

Q: (D) When 4th density beings communicate it's telepathic, right?

A: Yes.

Q: (D) Okay, since time doesn't exist, how do you communicate about happenings?

A: Rephrase, please; clarify.

Q: (L) What she means to ask is, if you're communicating telepathically... (D) On 4th density.. (L) And time doesn't exist, how do you communicate about events as one happens now, as opposed to later and the next thing happens, and the next thing happens... (J) How is it sequential?

A: Translate.

Q: (D) Translate? Okay, let me explain what I mean. I mean, we talk about 1907 something happened...

A: That is how it is done.


Q: (T) Translate is how it is done. You translate the experience?

A: From 4 to 3. And vice verse.

Q: (L) So, in other words, it's almost like making movies. (J) Are linear thought processes part of it? Is it being linear and non-linear?

A: Part of 3d illusion only.

Q: (L) So, in other words, if you're a 4th density being, everything is more or less happening, excuse the term happening, everything is simultaneous, and if you wish to discuss or communicate or have any focus upon any particular aspect of this unified dimension, then what you do is you kind of extract it out, project it into 3d...

A: Close.

Q: (L) ... like a movie.

A: But you will not understand fully until you get there

Q: (T) Okay, so it's a concept that we can't completely grasp in 3d at this point.

A: Can a dog grasp algebra? You got it.

Q: (L) In other words, we're in bad shape! And these guys are playing games with us, so to speak...

A: Subjective.

Q: (T) Subjective to whether we're in bad shape or not. A:
Yes.

Q: (T) I was going to say that doesn't necessarily mean we're in bad shape... (L) Well, the situation we find ourselves in, is the only way of getting out of this time loop, so to speak, to move into another density, or is there a loop in the other density as well?

A: No.


Q: (L) No loop in the other density?

A: Yogis can do it.

Q: (L) Yogis can do it... (T) Transcend time. (L) Okay, let me ask this before we really start to go...

A: How they control their own physicality.

Of course, the control of our physicality is no small task, is it?

Q: (Perceval) Did the Nazis use gas chambers to kill Jews?

A: No.

Q: (Perceval) How many Jews in total were killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust?

A: 3.2 million.

Q: (Mr. Scott) Did they kill them by other means?

A: Yes. Shooting, starvation, experiments, diseases including deliberate infection for experiment.

Q: (Mr. Scott) Well that’s pretty funny because, if there were no gas chamber, Israel can go in and kill as many Arabs as they want and no one can ever say “you’re doing what Hitler did” because they’ll say “no, we’re not using gas chambers” we’re not that horrid, and yet it never happened. (Galahad) Yeah, but essentially it’s the same list of items that they have on track for the rest of us today.

According to the Cs there was a karmic component to the holocaust events.

Session 18 February 1995:
Q: (J) I want to ask about...

A: Laura first, we/she is about to jump out of her/our skin.

Q: {Laughter} (T) Ask away, my dear. (L) I wanted to ask, now you guys are going to be mad at me because I am going off on a very serious tangent...

A: We know, just ask it, already!!!!

Q: (LM) Is that New Yorkese? (L) The question I wanted to ask...

A: No, LM, Miami Jewishese!

Q: {Laughter} (LM) I thought they were in Cornucopia, not Miami! (J) Just spit it out! (L) My question is... (T) She forgot! (L) No, I didn't forget, I just have to figure out how to word this. As you know, I am reading this book about Holocaust victims reincarnating and remembering their experiences at this time. The question is, on one occasion you told us that the Jewish people, as a racial group, were Atlantean descendants, is that correct?

A: Some.


Q: (L) There is some. Can you give us that some?

A: No.

Q: (L) Is there some karmic element that was fulfilled by the Holocaust?

A: Of course.


Q: (L) Could you tell us what karma was being expunged in that activity, and what group the Jews represented?

A: This is not germane, but it was Atlantean overseers "expunging" guilt from that life experience.

According to the Cs the main purpose of the events were karmic rather than racial or religious.

Sesseion 22 February 1995:
Q: (L) Now, you said that the Jews were Atlantean descendants, and that Noah was an Atlantean...

A: Most of them.


Q: (L) What is the significance of this relating to their religion and their experiences and the current state of the Jews?

A: Was Jews in "holocaust" only.


Q: (L) Is the Jewish religion somewhat similar to the Atlantean religion?

A: Did you understand the previous answer?

Q: (L) Are you saying that the Jews were the only ones in the holocaust?

A: No.


Q: (L) Are you saying that the Jews were not the only ones in the holocaust?

A: No special karmic significance to being "Jewish", special significance is experiencing holocaust for purpose of purging extraordinary karmic debt.

Q: (L) Okay. I got it. Now, is the Jewish religion similar to the Atlantean religion?

A: Not one religion only. Many "religions."

Perhaps our main concern now is really "psychopaths".

Session 21 November 2015:
Q: (L) Yes, everybody ought to read “Controversy of Zion” and understand that it’s not just about Zionism, it’s about psychopaths. Alright then. Anybody have any questions about that?

A: We told you that Nazi Germany was a "practice run".

Q: (L) Yes, you did. But we couldn’t even conceive of what that meant or how it would play out. You also told us about mass control by cops with stun guns and more. Everybody is being herded into finer and finer orders of control, and it just doesn't look very... it doesn't look very hopeful from any angle.

(Pierre) And there's a demonized population as well.

(L) Yeah, just like there was in Nazi Germany. Back then it was Jews, and now it's other Semites, i.e. Arabs and Muslims. They got rid of the Semitic Jews during the holocaust and most of what is left are the Khazarian Jews. Now, they are going after the Semitic Arabs.

(Chu) And they want to make "Retention Camps", or concentration camps.

(L) Yeah, now they're talking about building camps...

(Data) They don't call them concentration camps. They call them "hot spots".

(L) It's Nazi Germany all over again, only it's freakin' global!

(Andromeda) That's pretty depressing.

A: Yes. It will pass when the big changes come.

Q: (L) And I'm assuming you mean cosmic changes like Earth changes?

A: Yes.

Q: (L) And we notice that the weather... I mean, you said that all of this stuff was going to manifest as weather first, and it certainly is manifesting as weather first. Just about everything that was said back in many of the early sessions is happening now. It took 20 years to get there, but it's here. It's now.

(Perceval) Does that mean that terrorism and terrorists will be the last thing on the authorities' minds?

A: Naturally so. But be aware that they have been misled too!

Q: (L) So even the PTB are running their operations based on wishful thinking; they think that they're setting things up to create their global empire, and they don't even know that earth changes or serious climate changes are going to happen that will knock their global empire off its foundation. Is that it?

A: Yes

Q: (L) I mean, what else can you think when they built something like that seed bank in Svalbard, Norway? They actually think they're going to have access to it? Where are the firing neurons on that one?!

(Pierre) It means they see something coming if they made that seed bank. But obviously, they don't have the global picture; they don’t see what is REALLY coming.

(L) They don't have the whole picture.

A: Exactly.

Q: (L) So, what can we do, if anything?

A: Help others to be ready.

It is a bit strange to think much of this started in Atlantis. There is maybe still a connection to the Atlantian technology (possibly 4D STS) that is on-going.
 
Roosegaarde said he was shocked to learn that the victims came from all over the Netherlands, hailing from almost every town or city. About 80 percent of the Dutch-Jewish population was killed in the World War II genocide, the largest proportion in Western Europe, second only to Poland.

It's a shame that he doesn't mention the role of the Dutch Jewish council which collaborated with the Nazis (in Dutch only):

Wat was de rol van de Joodsche Raad tijdens WO2?

For quite some time I have been wondering about the above, why were so many Jews and other groups deported from Holland to the concentration camps? By reading the Dutch article I moved one step closer to solving this conundrum. I thought the following quote about the situation in Belgium during WWII was very telling and a stark contrast:

In België was de situatie anders:
Wij hebben een andere houding tegenover gezag. Omdat we eeuwenlang zijn bezet, vinden we gezag hoe dan ook verdacht. Bovendien had je bij ons een goed georganiseerd netwerk van katholieke organisaties én een goed georganiseerd verzet. Die twee groepen hebben tijdens de oorlog samengewerkt. Zo is men er in het zuiden in geslaagd meer dan de helft van de joden te redden. Er waren bij ons geen uitgebreide registers.
In Belgium, the situation was different:

We have a different attitude towards authority. Because we have been occupied for centuries, we find authority suspicious anyway. What's more, we had a well-organised network of Catholic organisations and a well-organised resistance. Those two groups worked together during the war. They succeeded in saving more than half of the Jews in the south. There were no extensive registers with us.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Personally, I think we do not need new Holocaust memorials, especially after watching a video which was posted in the From Yahweh to Zion thread about these numerous Israeli kids that visit the concentration camps every year and who are brainwashed and terrorised into thinking that non-Jews are still the enemy.

 
Thank you both for expanding on the subject. :cool2:

As for the Jewish Council (Joodse Raad), the Presser book I referenced above has ample information about that but it's cristal clear Roosengaarde didn't read that one - not even in Dutch.

It's available to read and as a download (Dutch only, two tomes) starting here:
J. Presser, Ondergang De vervolging en verdelging van het Nederlandse jodendom 1940-1945 · dbnl

The Jewish Council material starts here - fairly at the beginning of his work (Tome I, p.38):
J. Presser, Ondergang De vervolging en verdelging van het Nederlandse jodendom 1940-1945 · dbnl
 
Personally, I think we do not need new Holocaust memorials, especially after watching a video which was posted in the From Yahweh to Zion thread about these numerous Israeli kids that visit the concentration camps every year and who are brainwashed and terrorised into thinking that non-Jews are still the enemy.

@Mariama ,

New memorials don't seem to be the main problem for me. It is the stories told while visiting them as you mentioned are really being used as brainwashing. I have visited the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C... I had similar reactions that the young Israeli teenagers were having in the video.

The most outspoken and believable speaker for me was Norman Finklestein. He really sums up the underlying victimhood card that the holocaust represents and gets "packaged" with Israeli excuses. Also, I could see there are many "shades of grey" even in those who support Zionism. The lack of objectivity due to lack of knowledge is astounding.

The psychopathy that twists and distorts us is beyond this 3D realm I think. I am even more convinced we are dealing with forces that never rest in perpetuating divisions and wars among us in order to attain complete control. Only by growing awareness of these creatures will we be protected from their activities present, past and future.

The karma will fall where it must for all of us. May we accept our responsibility and learn to not make the same mistakes over and over.
 
@Mariama ,

New memorials don't seem to be the main problem for me. It is the stories told while visiting them as you mentioned are really being used as brainwashing. I have visited the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C... I had similar reactions that the young Israeli teenagers were having in the video.

The most outspoken and believable speaker for me was Norman Finklestein. He really sums up the underlying victimhood card that the holocaust represents and gets "packaged" with Israeli excuses. Also, I could see there are many "shades of grey" even in those who support Zionism. The lack of objectivity due to lack of knowledge is astounding.

The psychopathy that twists and distorts us is beyond this 3D realm I think. I am even more convinced we are dealing with forces that never rest in perpetuating divisions and wars among us in order to attain complete control. Only by growing awareness of these creatures will we be protected from their activities present, past and future.

The karma will fall where it must for all of us. May we accept our responsibility and learn to not make the same mistakes over and over.

Don't forget that from US, there is an emotional detachment that can not be there in Europe. And I understand it can be hard for you to grasp all the weight the holocaust( ho, no, it's called shoah now) can have in the "propaganda" in European countries. (yes you said some truth, but :-P;-), others evil details :-))
 
@Maat ,

I don't claim to have the whole truth. Could you give some examples of the "other evil details" you think are important?

I didn't think you claimed it ! For the most part, I was alluding to the heavy emotional weight which is politically used and used endlessly 🤮

That's all I wanted to point to you.

(I wish I can express myself in English so better !! :-( )
 
I didn't think you claimed it ! For the most part, I was alluding to the heavy emotional weight which is politically used and used endlessly 🤮

That's all I wanted to point to you.

(I wish I can express myself in English so better !! :-( )

Yes, the emotional weight is certainly part of the brainwashing and propaganda agenda. I think it is worse for those of you in Europe because the memories are much closer to home than those of us here in the U.S... We do have some veterans war stories of our own though which are also tainted by propaganda in many ways too.

And now for those of you there in Europe, there is this on-going guilt propaganda being repeated over and over. :-(
 
And for an example of the "evil details", see this post of mine in the Yellow vest thread

 
Source (Dutch only): Duitsland doneert vier miljoen euro aan Nationaal Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam

DeepL Translator said:
Germany donates four million euros to the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam

Mass murder As far as we know, the country has never before donated such a large sum of money to a Dutch authority. The museum hopes to open in 2022.

Thijs Niemantsverdriet 13 January 2020 at 17:59


data53977564-c9c124.jpg

The National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam. Photo Robin van Lonkhuijsen/ANP


The German state is donating four million euros to the National Holocaust Museum (NHM) in Amsterdam. The organization announced this on Monday together with the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heiko Maas.

As far as we know, the Federal Republic of Germany has never before donated such a large amount to a Dutch institution dedicated to the mass murder of European Jews by the Nazis. With this donation, Germany wants to encourage "a future-oriented approach to the past," according to Minister Maas in a press statement. "Especially now, at a time when Jews are once again being confronted with increasingly violent anti-Semitism."

The NHM started four years ago as a 'testing ground': in 2022 it hopes to open its doors as a fully-fledged museum. The NHM is housed in the former Reformed Training College [Dutch: Kweekschool] for Teachers in the Plantage neighborhood of Amsterdam, from where resistance groups managed to bring hundreds of Jewish children to safety.

Starting in February, the museum begins a two-year renovation of the Training College and the Hollandsche Schouwburg [Dutch Theater] that lies opposite, culminating in a permanent exhibition on the deportation and murder of 102,000 Dutch Jews during the German occupation.

Funding for this project is not yet complete. "With the donation from Germany we have reached the point where we can say: it will succeed," says Emile Schrijver, director of the Jewish Cultural Quarter, of which the museum is part. He speaks of an "exceptionally generous contribution" from the German state.

'On the wrong side'

Previously, the Dutch state donated 5.6 million euros to the NHM. The municipality of Amsterdam will decide on a contribution in the near future, reportedly of several million. The rest of the necessary budget of more than 27 million euros will come from contributions from wealthy private individuals and companies. Among these donors are Philips and the Dutch Railways, two companies that collaborated with the German occupying forces during the war.

For fundraising, the museum deliberately knocks on the door of companies and governments that were 'on the wrong side' during the war, says director Schrijver. "In so doing, we want to steer clear of the simplistic image of 'you are the perpetrator and must give money'."

German state donates on more occasions

The German state regularly donates to institutions at home and abroad that keep alive the memory of the murder of 6 million European Jews during the Third Reich. Last month, Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged 60 million euros to the memorial center in the former Auschwitz extermination camp in Poland.

The German minister Maas would personally announce the donation on Monday during a visit to the Netherlands, but cancelled his trip because of the unrest in the Middle East.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
 
UPDATE: The light of life: monument to 104,000 people killed in the Holocaust - DutchNews.nl

The light of life: monument to 104,000 people killed in the Holocaust

January 17, 2020 - By Senay Boztas

Levenslicht-560x373.jpg

Levenslicht. Photo: Studio Roosegaarde – Ruben Hamelink


They glow with a piercing, blue light, and then the lights go out. The 104,000 stones that make up a new monument to the Jewish, Roma and Sinti Dutch people murdered in The Holocaust were unveiled in Rotterdam this week.

Levenslicht – which means ‘the light of life’ – was created by artist Daan Roosegaarde for the National Committee of 4 and 5 May, set up to remember World War II and The Netherlands’ liberation on these dates in 1945.

Its aim is to raise awareness of these 104,000 Dutch people who were deported and murdered. The stones will be moved to 170 different local council areas where they once lived, from January 22 to February 2.

But united at first, the 20 meter long monument was presented in a ceremony on Thursday evening, and currently stands on the corner of the Stieltjesstraat and Eva Cohen-Hartogkade in Rotterdam.

Roosegaarde, whose studio impregnated the stones with fluorescent pigment so they would light up under the flickering ultraviolet light, said: ‘This is not a traditional, static monument where people are purely observers. The temporary artwork asks you to particulate: you are part of the story.’

He added that stones are seen as important in Jewish, Roma and Sinti culture.

Gerdi Verbeet, chairman of the national committee said the monument of light reflected a dark time: ‘Seventy-five years of freedom cannot be celebrated without dwelling on the blackest page of WWII: the Holocaust. This unique project lets people in their own neighborhood reflect on the horrors of the past, in a local and personal way.’

The monument is part of a series of events and commissions marking the 75th year after the Netherlands’ liberation.
 
Source: New footage found of WWII deportation camp Westerbork

New footage found of WWII deportation camp Westerbork

By Janene Pieters on January 21, 2020 - 12:00

depositphotos_20589879_xl-2015.jpg

The National Westerbork Memorial at the site of a transit camp where over 100,000 Jews, Roma, and Sinti were held before they were
deported to concentration and extermination camps during World War II. Feb. 16, 2013 - Photo: Mactrunk / DepositPhotos


An intensive search led to the discovery of a new copy of footage from Camp Westerbork, a transit camp from which over 101 thousand people were deported out of the Netherlands by train during World War Two. The footage is a rare piece of film to still in existence which shows the Nazi camps during the Second World War, the The Netherlands Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD) announced.

The recently uncovered film print includes high quality footage of a transport of Jewish people by train, filmed on 19 May 1944, and a short fragment of the camp, nicknamed the Foyer of Hell. "In comparison with the known images, the newly found material is much more detailed and therefore more penetrating," NIOD said. "This also means that better research can be done with it and new insights may be obtained."

The film was shot in 1944 by Rudolf Breslauer, who was ordered to shoot footage by Albert Konrad Gemmeker, the camp's commander, according to NIOD. The footage was eventually confiscated, and after the war most of the material came into the hands of NIOD. It was later transferred to the Film Museum, and is now managed by the Netherlands Institute for Images and Sound under the name, "Westerbork Film".

It consists of around eight hours of footage.

Nearly all of those deported from the Netherlands were Jewish, and the camp's temporary population included Romani and Sinti people as well as Resistance fighters. Those deported were mainly sent to the concentration or extermination camps at Auschwitz and Sobibor.

Last summer, national railway service NS agreed to pay tens of millions of euros in damages to the families of Holocaust victims and survivors who were transported by train to and from Westerbork. The NS said it would also discuss the possibility of paying damage claims for the Dutch Resistance members who were collected and deported by rail.

NIOD press release:
Camera-originele beelden 'Westerborkfilm' herontdekt
NIEUWS | Na een intensieve speurtocht zijn beelden van de ‘Westerborkfilm’, een van de zeldzame films van Nazi kampen, herontdekt. In vergelijking met het materiaal dat nu toegankelijk is voor publiek en onderzoekers is het gevonden materiaal veel gedetailleerder en daardoor indringender. Hierdoor kan er beter onderzoek mee gedaan worden en kunnen nieuwe inzichten worden verkregen. De directe aanleiding voor de zoektocht naar camera-origineel beelden was de toevoeging van de ‘Westerborkfilm’ aan het Unesco Memory of the World Register en de daaruit vloeiende verplichtingen de kennis hierover te vergroten. Het NIOD heeft daarop het initiatief genomen.
De reconstructie en restauratie van de ‘Westerborkfilm’ is een samenwerking van het NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid, Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork, Unesco Memory of the World Comité Nederland en het Joods Cultureel Kwartier.
Geplaatst door NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies op Maandag 20 januari 2020
Translation:
DeepL Translator said:
Camera original images 'Westerborkfilm' rediscovered

NEWS | After an intensive search, images from the 'Westerborkfilm', one of the rare films of Nazi camps, have been rediscovered. Compared to the material now accessible to the public and researchers, the found material is much more detailed and therefore more probing. This allows for better research and new insights to be gained. The direct reason for the search for camera original footage was the addition of the 'Westerborkfilm' to the Unesco Memory of the World Register and the resulting obligations to increase knowledge about it. The NIOD took the initiative.
The reconstruction and restoration of the 'Westerborkfilm' is a collaboration between the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Camp Westerbork Remembrance Centre, Unesco Memory of the World Committee Netherlands and the Jewish Cultural Quarter.

Posted by NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies on Monday 20 January 2020.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
 
Source: Westerbork commemorates Dutch Nazi victims, new film footage shows life at the camp - DutchNews.nl

Westerbork commemorates Dutch Nazi victims, new film footage shows life at the camp

January 22, 2020

The names of 102,000 Jews, Sinti and Roma who were sent to concentration camps from Netherlands will be read out [in Dutch] at the Westerbork transit camp on Wednesday in commemoration of their fate at the hands of the Nazis.

The ceremony, which has been repeated annually since 2005, will begin at 5pm and continue non-stop until the following Monday, which is international Holocaust Remembrance Day.

January 27 also marks 75 years since the allies liberated Auschwitz, where thousands of Dutch Jews were murdered.

Some 800 people will participate in the name reading, which will begin with Auschwitz survivor Ernst Verduin calling out the first series of names. The reading will conclude with Mirjam Weitzner-Smuk, another survivor, pronouncing the final name on the list, Heinrich Zysmanowicz. Public figures, such as Job Cohen, Gerdi Verbeet and Youp van ‘t Hek as well as volunteers from all parts of society will also take part.

‘Naming the 102,000 shows this is not about a number but about 102,000 fathers, mothers, grandmothers, brothers, cousins, friends,’ the Westerbork commemoration center said.

A live streaming of the ceremony can be seen at www.102000namenlezen.nl

Film footage

The ceremony is taking place at the courtyard used for the camp’s roll call, which features in a German propaganda film currently being restored. The first of the restored images, as well as rediscovered, more detailed footage, were shown to the press on Tuesday by war genocide study centre NIOD.

NIOD director Frank van Vree told the Volkskrant [in Dutch] the importance of the project was ‘difficult to overestimate’.

Pointing out that the film was made for propaganda purposes, De Vree said we are looking at people in fear of their lives through a German lens.

The German perspective is revealed in footage of people taking part in leisure activities, such as sports competitions, in the courtyard and comedy shows meant to alleviate that fear by creating an atmosphere of normalcy and order.

Dutch journalist Philip Mechanicus, who later died in Auschwitz, described the event in his diary as an ‘operetta music played beside an open grave’.

However, the film also contains harrowing footage of the so-called ‘Boulevard des Misères’ from which the trains departed to concentration camps like Sobibor, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. It shows camp commander Albert Konrad Gemmeker, who commissioned the film.

At his trial after the war he was to say that he wanted to show ‘everything, including the sad sides of the camp so I couldn’t be said to have shown only the better sides.’

It was a comment that left all present in the court room in ‘complete confusion’, Ad van Liempt, author of a biography on Gemmeker, told the paper.


Short video clip {0:31 min.) to show the quality difference between the original footage {left) and extant copies [no sound]:



Other coverage of possible interest:
At 97, a Dutch resistance hero wants to give fellow Jewish fighters overdue recognition - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
 
Source: Dutch king tours Israel’s Yad Vashem before Holocaust Remembrance Day

Dutch king tours Israel’s Yad Vashem before Holocaust Remembrance Day

By Janene Pieters on January 23, 2020 - 11:50

82961884_1839026602897663_7666150039311351808_o.jpg

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin shaking hands with Dutch King Willem-Alexander at the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem, 22 January 2020
Israel Government Press Office/Kobi Gideon - Facebook



King Willem-Alexander is currently in Jerusalem, at the invitation of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, for the World Holocaust Forum. On Thursday, the Dutch King will visit the Yad Vashem museum and the Dutch care home Beth Juliana, ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day next week.

Yad Vashem is the official Israeli memorial center for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The institute documents and commemorates the fates of European Jews during the Second World War and honors the people who worked to help the Jews at the time.

The Beth Juliana care center in Herzliya offers accommodation for mainly Jewish seniors. Many of the residents grew up in the Netherlands and experienced the Holocaust there, later moving to Israel. The King will speak to the residents about their experiences during and after the war, and talk with the management about the Dutch-Israeli care center.

After visiting the museum and care center, King Willem-Alexander will attend the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem - a meeting dedicated to the commemoration of the Holocaust and the fight against anti-Semitism worldwide. Heads of state and government from around 40 countries are attending.

On Monday, the King, Queen Maxima, and Prime Minister Mark Rutte will go to Poland to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.


Coverage in Dutch:
Koning over Holocaust: 'Hoe kan mensheid zoiets verschrikkelijks doen'

Other news:
In its obsession with Russia, Polish government now rushes headlong into disgusting Holocaust revisionism -- Sott.net
Dutch coverage:
Protest tegen compensatie Joods eigendom: 'Dit is pro-Pools, niet anti-Joods'
 
Back
Top Bottom