Recently we visited the newly opened Nationaal Holocaust Namenmonument Nederland in Amsterdam.
The Dutch government finally decided to remember and honor the 102,000 Dutch victims including Jews, Sinti, and Roma who were deported and murdered during World War II. It was 76 years after liberation from Nazi terror, but better late than never.
After the war I occasionally heard adults whisper about all the lives lost—about 70 in our family alone. As children we knew not to ask questions, so I wondered about those family members, but had no clue who they really were.
I thought we just had a very small family.
It was shocking to see so many names on the monument, and so many with the same last name as our family, Israëls.
After visiting the monument, my sister, brothers, and I went through all the family photos that we had found after my parents passed away.
We tried very hard to figure out who all the people were, and we thought that we did a pretty good job identifying some of them. I remember one photograph in particular: the choppe (wedding) of my great-uncle Joël, my grandmother’s brother, to my great-aunt Betje, my grandfather’s sister, in 1905. The couple met at my grandparents’ engagement party.
I am always curious, and I always want to go a little further, so I searched the internet for some of the names that we had found. I stumbled on so many family members—even on nine Stolpersteine placed at the homes or other last known locations before people were deported.
This sad and somber monument started me thinking about all the family. We could have celebrated birthdays, special holidays, and weddings together. Who were they? Do I look like them? Did I step into their footsteps?
I hope that I do a little of all the above.
The design of the monument by Daniel Libeskind is haunting in its simplicity. Every person has their name, date of birth, and age of death engraved on their own brick, and the brick has its natural color.
If the reason for this monument was not so terribly sad, I could call it a beautiful monument.
Below, see part of the wall with all the Israëls names.
Nationaal Holocaust Namenmonument Nederland memorial wall. Courtesy of Louise Lawrence-Israëls
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