Amsterdam city council supports Holocaust Memorial of Names |
26-01-2014 |
Amsterdam city council supports the initiative to build the Dutch Holocaust Memorial of Names in Amsterdam. Mayor Eberhard van der Laan made this announcement today during the National Holocaust Remembrance in Wertheim Park in Amsterdam.
Mayor Van der Laan quoted an Amsterdam survivor of Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp who, after remaining silent about her experiences for many years, decided to tell her story because what happened at Auschwitz and other camps should never be forgotten.
‘For that very reason, Amsterdam city council supports the initiative taken by the Dutch Auschwitz Committee to build a Holocaust Memorial of Names, and the initiative of the Hollandsche Schouwburg to create a Shoah Museum,’ said Van der Laan.
During the remembrance, many hundreds of people walked in silent procession from Amsterdam city hall to Wertheim Park, where they gathered around the ‘Auschwitz Never Again’ mirror memorial by Jan Wolkers. In his speech, chairman Jacques Grishaver of the Dutch Auschwitz Committee spoke approvingly of the surprisingly high number of young people in attendance at the ceremony.
‘Commemorating is not just for those who are able to remember. It is also for those who did not experience it,’ said Grishaver. He added that this is why it is so important to build a Holocaust Memorial of Names where all victims of the Holocaust can be remembered, both collectively and individually. Such a memorial warns us for the horrors that can result from racism and discrimination, which, he noted, are surfacing more frequently again today, something about which all of us must remain vigilant.
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