Sobibor began in the Vondel Park, king says at Holocaust museum

King Willem-Alexander has formally opened the Netherlands’ first museum devoted to the World War II Holocaust in an intimate ceremony at the 17th century Portuguese synagogue in the heart of the former Jewish quarter of Amsterdam.

“This museum shows us how it happened, not that long ago,” the king said, addressing the survivors in the audience.

The museum tells the story of the Holocaust through personal possessions, photographs and texts, highlighting the increasing restrictions placed upon the city’s Jewish population.

“From anti-Semitism to the gas chambers. Poisonous words and deeds were a deadly dynamic,” the king said. “Let us never forget, Sobibor began in the Vondel Park, with a sign that said ‘forbidden to Jews’.”

As the opening ceremony took place, an estimated 2,000 demonstrators gathered across the road at the Waterlooplein in protest at the presence of Israeli president Yitzhak Herzog.

Waving Palestinian flags and carrying banners with texts such as “never again means now” and “museum yes, Herzog no”, the crowd chanted “from the river to the sea”, watched by riot police.

During his speech, Herzog called for the safe return of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas last October in bloody raids across a string of locations and only referred to the ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza by mentioning a soldier who died a month ago “while bravely defending Israel”.

The opening of the museum, he said, sends a clear, powerful statement. “Remember the horrors born of hatred, anti-Semitism and racism and never again allow them to flourish,” he said. “Unfortunately, never again is now, right now because right now hatred and anti- Semitism are flourishing worldwide and we must fight it together.”

Herzog asked the invited guests to pray for the victims of Shoah and all current victims of hatred, terror and anti-Semitism. “Finally, in this shrine of prayer, let us pray for the immediate safe return of our hostages,” Herzog said.

News that Herzog would be attending leaked out last week, leading to calls for his invitation to be revoked. “The Holocaust museum is very important but I cannot ignore what is happening [in Gaza] and that the Dutch government is receiving the president of Israel,” demonstrator Lianne de Roo said. “Not in my name.”

Demonstrator Shira told the Parool: “I have a Jewish father. It is now more important than ever for Jewish people to show what they stand for, and to speak out against what is happening in Gaza.”

Fred van Vliet (81), one of the babies at the Jewish creche who were sent into hiding, was at the ceremony itself and said the museum is extremely necessary given so many youngsters have forgotten the Holocaust.

Protests

“I am thinking of my parents, both of whom were murdered and who are looking down on us today,” he told the paper. The demonstrations, he said, were regrettable. “There should not be protests on a day like today,” he said. “People should be able to separate things.”

However, Yuval Gal from the Jewish anti-Zionist movement Erev Rav which called for Sunday’s demonstration, called on the International Criminal Court in The Hague to arrest Herzog.

“The people from the Holocaust museum say we should not make things political,” he said. “But we can’t sit still while there is the threat of genocide, apartheid or occupation.”