Jewish Cultural Quarter

Over the past few days Connor and I have been exploring some sites and museums in the Jewish Quarter of the city, which is only a 5 minute tram ride from our apartment. In the 15th century, a lot of Jews found refuge in Amsterdam, where more religious tolerance was practiced than in the rest of Europe (especially Spain and Portugal with the Spanish Inquisition). In the 1490s Jews were given the option to convert to Catholicism, leave those countries, or to be executed. However, they weren't free in the Netherlands for very long; the ups and downs of religious freedom reached its climax with World War II and the persecution of the Jews.

*none of the pictures below are mine. I found them all on various websites because it seemed disrespectful to take them there myself

The first place we visited was the Anne Frank's house. In July of 1942, the Franks went into hiding in the concealed annex in the building her father, Otto, had worked. Eight Jewish people hid there until August 1944 when they were betrayed and brought to concentration camps. Anne and her sister Margot were transferred to Bergen Belsen concentration camp where they both died in either February or March of 1945, only weeks before the camp was liberated. She was 15 years old. Otto was the only one to survive the war and when he returned he found Anne's diary and knew it was her wish to have it published. The place where they hid remains in tact and now serves as a museum and memorial for those that were murdered in the Holocaust.

Anne Frank House
From the outside, you would think this was just your typical canal house with nothing special about it. The Nazi thought so too...

To help disguise the entrance to the secret annex, the people helping the Franks (Otto's old coworkers) put a swinging bookcase in front of it instead of a typical door.

The Franks and the four others hiding with them had three floors hidden behind the warehouse and office space. Because some of the employees didn't know they were hidden there, they had to be virtually silent all day as to not be heard. They had to  whisper and couldn't use the sinks or toilet. The windows  had to be closed and covered at all times so no one could see anything from the outside.

In her diary, Anne wrote about how decorating her sleeping space with newspaper clippings and postcards made it much more cheerful. All of the furniture has been removed from the old house, but the decorations are still there. It was heartbreaking to see Anne's diary entries about how happy those small pictures made her in such dark times. She also had a fascination with different royal families and kept track of their birthdays and interests, just like teenage girls following celebrities today.  

The Hollandshe Schouwburg was a Dutch theater, but during the Nazi occupation in 1941 it was converted to a Jewish theater where only Jewish musicians and shows could be seen exclusively by Jewish audiences. Then later it was used as a deportation center to hold thousands of Jews before being brought to concentration camps. After the war ended, most of the theater was destroyed, but the courtyard was preserved and now is a memorial. They built a wall and wrote the 7,000 family names of those who had been held there. They had a room filled with letters, photos and belongings of those people as well as moving videos of first hand accounts from the survivors. What I really enjoyed about this museum was that it focused on the people and helped show them as individuals and didn't focus on the Nazis and the horror they caused. 

The remains of the theater

Wall of the last names of the families

In 1675 one of the Portuguese Jewish communities built an impressively beautiful synagogue. Unlike most Dutch synagogues, this one, or the Esnoga, was very well preserved, as well as its 17th century elements and collections. These collections are now on display in the "Treasure Chambers" after a restoration and addition that were completed a few years ago. There was also a video that showed not only the history of the synagogue itself, but also the history of the traditions of the Jewish religion. 

Inside the synagogue

Silver collection on display, containing different ceremonial objects

Textiles and prints collection

Almost 400 year old library, the oldest Jewish library in the world.

Across the street from the synagogue is the Jewish Historical Museum which is dedicated to Jewish history and culture, not just in the Netherlands, but also throughout the world. The museum only has two permanent exhibits and regularly changing temporary ones. One focuses on Jewish culture and traditions and it showcases ceremonial objects presented in the ways they would be used in a synagogue.

I learned so much at these museums! As someone who grew up in Milton MA, a town that prides themselves on having the highest population of Irish Catholics outside of Ireland, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to Jewish traditions. I've taken a lot of religion classes so I'm familiar with Jewish beliefs, but not customs. This was my first time in a synagogue and my first time really learning about the different facets of  their services. I've read plenty of books and seen tons of movies depicting the various parts of World War II and the Holocaust, but it was completely different seeing these places in person. After reading the Diary of Anne Frank, moving the bookcase to walk up to where the Frank family really hid in the 40s was unsettling. Waiting in the entry way of the theater where tens of thousands of people stood before being transported to concentration camps was chilling.

One of the temporary exhibits going on now at the Historical Museum is "After The War Was Over" based on a book by Leonard Freed and was the perfect way of ending our Jewish history tour. He was a Jewish New York photographer who traveled to Amsterdam in the 50s to capture what life was like for the Jews after the war had ended. Below are two of his photographs of people trying to move on after the Holocaust.

This time was very difficult for European Jews. While the majority were killed during the Holocaust, the survivors faced tough choices. They had lost family and friends, their homes and livelihoods. A lot turned away from their faith and others moved to the US, Canada, and Australia. The small Jewish population remaining struggled to rebuild. Freed was able to capture this rebuild beautifully. 

The following one of his quotes was put on the wall of the exhibit from after he had returned home to New York that I could relate to all these years later. 

"I miss Amsterdam. The marks of war were still to be seen and the first rays of the future were perking through. It was a period of transition, and it was when I discovered myself and my relationship with the world around me. It was my coming of age."