National Holocaustmuseum

Introduction:
Officially opened in 2024, the National Holocaust Museum is located in the former Jewish neighborhood in Amsterdam and is part of the Jewish Cultural Quarter. The museum is located in the former Nursery School opposite the Hollandsche Schouwburg from which Jews were deported during World War II. Next to the school was the nursery from which hundreds of Jewish children would be smuggled out.

The National Holocaust Museum is the first and only museum to tell the history of the persecution of Jews throughout the Netherlands.

A piece of history:
Before World War II, about 140,000 Jews lived in the Netherlands where Amsterdam formed the largest Jewish community. During the occupation, the Germans would use the Hollandse Schouwburg, among other places, as a gathering place from which Jews were deported to death camps in Eastern Europe. Jewish small children were often separated from their parents and taken to the nursery opposite.

The director of the kindergarten and the Hollandsche Schouwburg developed a plan to smuggle away as many Jewish children as possible, including through the nursery school. Between 500 and 700 children would eventually end up at hiding addresses throughout the Netherlands through the resistance.

Museum:
The permanent presentation at the museum located in the former teacher training school focuses on the history of more than 100,000 murdered Jews from the Netherlands. It also covers the Jewish community before World War II, as well as the persecution, perpetrators and liberation. Through the museum's personal stories, objects and interactivity, visitors are taken by hand through the Holocaust period in the Netherlands.

On the first floor you imagine yourself back in wartime where you can see projected footsteps in the hall where children were taken to the front exit of the school and then released. There is also a crib in an original room. Finally, you can see part of the yard fence where children were handed over from the nursery to resistance fighters.

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

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Source

• Text: Cheapskatetravel.nl
• Photos: Mike Bink - Nationaal Holocaustmuseum (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Cheapskatetravel.nl (6, 7, 8)