Dutch Holocaust memorial opens after years-long legal deadlock

Amsterdam unveiled in September 2021 a national monument bearing the names of over 100,000 names of Dutch Jews, Sinti and Roma who were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The walls of the monument, designed by Polish-American architect Daniel Liebeskind, are shaped after four Hebrew letters meaning "in memory of." 

לז

They consist of 102,000 brick walls, each bearing the name of a victim.

I needed to see this. Coincidences don’t exist. The day I went to visit it rained…Water from heaven and my eyes.

It was impossible to read each name and their ages, besides, what was I looking for? I laid a few stones…

My grandfather hid Jewish people in his house in Amsterdam during the 2nd World War and was betrayed by some neighbours. Arrested and deported to the infamous Buchenwald camp, he was shot on March 3, 1945, when the Germans learned about the capitulation and the subsequent end of the war. As were many others…

He will be remembered with a Stolperstein.

So what was I looking for? His name wouldn’t be there…Pondering while wandering around suddenly it hit me. I was looking for names that were NOT there. People that maybe made it through the war thanks to those in the resistance of which my grandfather was part. I’ll never know, but I found the purpose of my visit.

Why am I writing this? War is wrong. It should not happen en we cannot tell the stories enough to those that carry the responsibility of the future of this world.

My grandkids will know this story and I hope if that everyone with a story to tell, tells it, it will multiply and who knows...One can dream…

Frans Kemper

In memoriam

Christiaan Carel Kemper

1887-1945