Light Memorial Jan Zwartendijk

Monument for former Philips director Jan Zwartendijk, who signed 2345 Curacao visas at the start of the Second World War as an honorary consul in Lithuania, thereby saving lives of Jews.

There has been a Memory Place for Jan Zwartendijk in Lithuania since 2018
Artwork designed by Giny Vos.
The more than 2,000 lines of light form a spiral of more than seven meters in diameter that winds around the tree directly opposite Jan Zwartendijk's former office: the lines represent the survivors, adults and children, who, thanks to Jan Zwartendijk's courageous act, saved the Holocaust. have survived. The streaks of light increase and decrease in intensity and sometimes a movement passes through them, connected for life. A monument to celebrate life. The design was festively unveiled on June 15, 2018 in Kaunas, Lithuania, in the presence of two of Zwartendijk's children, one of the survivors who came especially from Australia and King Willem-Alexander.

In the center of the spiral a round tile has been placed on the ground with a text in two languages that commemorates Jan Zwartendijk.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Robbert Baruch