Germany has pledged €4m for the development of the new Dutch national Holocaust museum, the Parool has reported.

‘This contribution means we can say with certainty the museum will happen,’ Emile Schrijver, director of Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter told the paper.

‘Germany feels responsible for the history,’ he said. ‘The country has been consciously processing its past for a long time. This contribution shows they are taking responsibility and want to warn people and encourage them to think.’

The museum will be housed in two buildings on the Plantage Middenlaan – the Hollandsche Schouwburg, where Jews were rounded up ahead of deportation to the concentration camps, and a teacher training college and seminary on the other side of the road.

The school currently houses a temporary museum which will close in February 2020 while the renovations are carried out.

The project is expected to cost €27m and the German contribution brings the total up to €21m. The Dutch government has contributed €5.6m and private sponsors €4m.

The Nazis together with Dutch collaborators murdered about 75% of the Netherlands’ prewar Jewish population of approximately 140,000 – the highest death rate in Western Europe.