Memorial Centre Hollandsche Schouwburg Amsterdam

The Hollandsche Schouwburg was a theatre on Plantage Middenlaan and had been a Jewish business before the war. In 1941, the Nazis changed the name to Joodsche Schouwburg and stipulated that it could only perform for and by Jews. This was one of many measures to separate Jews from the rest of society.

In 1942, the occupying forces requisitioned the theatre as a gathering place for Jews who were to be deported.

In the Umschlagplatz Plantage Middenlaan, as the German occupiers also called the Hollandsche Schouwburg, everyone was registered upon entry. Victims entered there after being summoned or after a raid. The raids were mainly used from September 1942 to round up Jews. After entry, for many, the waiting began. Many prisoners in the Hollandsche Schouwburg frantically tried, with the help of employees of the Jewish Council, to get an exemption (Sperre) to escape the trap or they tried to escape. Most of the time, they did not succeed.

Not only Amsterdam Jews but also Jews from the province were imprisoned in the Hollandsche Schouwburg. There were among the prisoners people with exemption stamps, the elderly but also children and non-Dutch Jews. These non-Dutch Jews had already fled to the Netherlands from Germany and Austria, for example, before 1940. Now they were once again trapped by the Nazis. From October 1942, the Germans requisitioned the Crèche across the street as an annex to the Hollandsche Schouwburg. Here, children up to the age of 12, separated from their parents, had to await their deportation.

Tens of thousands were locked up in the Hollandsche Schouwburg for hours, days or weeks. Tens of thousands were detained in the Hollandsche Schouwburg for hours, days or weeks. Transports from the theatre sometimes took place as many as three times a week. The victims were then transported in trams, trucks or buses to ready trains at Amsterdam Central Station or Muiderpoort station. Groups of prisoners also made their way to Muiderpoort station on foot under guard. This usually happened at night so few saw it. The Hollandsche Schouwburg was the last residence of the victims in Amsterdam, because from Muiderpoort and Centraal stations most were deported to Westerbork transit camp. Also, from 16 January 1943, mostly young Jewish prisoners were deported from the Hollandsche Schouwburg to Vught camp. From both camps, Jews were deported to concentration and extermination camps in the East.

Eventually, the theatre was closed as a deportation site after the last transport on Friday 19 November 1943. After that date, transports from Amsterdam still took place but from the House of Detention on the Amstelveenseweg.

Now the former theatre is an important memorial site for all victims of the Holocaust.

For current visiting hours, please visit the website of the museum.

Do you have more information about this location? Inform us!

Source

• Text: JCK Hollandsche Schouwburg
• Photos: Stefan Müller JCK (1), Stefan Müller JCK (2, 4, 5), Max Hart Nibrig JCK (3)
• Tekst en foto's i.o. met Nienke Fonk JCK 24-8-2024. jdj.
• GÖBEL, E. & MEULENBELD, H., Betty, Gibbon, Amsterdam, 2016.
• VREE, F. VAN e.a., De Hollandsche Schouwburg, Amsterdam, 2013.