During our recent European tour, we have visited several Jewish Museums.
The first was the "Resistance Museum", Amsterdam. As the name suggests it was on the repression on, and resistance by, the Dutch people against the Germans during the Second World War, and, although under a different name, it was a de facto Jewish Museum by half.
It analysed the behaviour of the Dutch people under the occupation using the concepts-very useful and interesting-of adjust(or adapt), collaborate or resist. The Unie(Union) movement may be called a way of adjusting. It was started in July '40, shortly after the invasion, in order to prevent the Dutch Nazi Party from grasping the administration. One photo showed a large number of men and women, mostly well-dressed, lining up in the streets to join it. But the movement did not collaborate as much as the Germans had hoped, and was banned in December '42.
After one year of occupation the Jewish were given their own ID, with a large 'J' on it. But their first uprising took place in February '41, and although it was suppressed it was joined by a large number of Communists, transport and dock workers. In March '43 they burnt the Registry Office.
The "Jewish Historical Museum", Amsterdam, is mainly on their history, and is also worth seeing.
The Jewish people started coming to this area around 1600. They came from different directions where, like Eastern Europe, there was not much freedom. Interestingly the development of the Dutch overseas commercial empire also gave the Jews an opportunity to migrate to Brazil, Surinam, West Indies, or New Amsterdam(New York). There were 60,000 Jews in the last-mentioned when the Second War broke out.
The number of Jews in the whole country at present is 43,000, of whom about half live in Amsterdam and nearby. 57% are not practicing their religion. Could this be one reason why they
prefer to remain in the Netherlands than to migrate to Israel?
Finally, after leaving Amsterdam, we visited the "Jewish Museum" in Berlin. It is a huge building intended to make you feel that you are in an underground room, made of concrete, cold, without windows, and prison-like, and are likely to lose your sense of equilibrium with the slopes and all that.
We have learned that of the 520,000 Jewish people who were in Germany at the time of the Nazi seizure, 260,000, just half, had escaped abroad. But it was banned in October '38, which opened the way to the 'last solution'.
One more interesting figure was that after the unification in '91, there has been a steady flow of the former Soviet Jews according to a treaty, and most of the 100,000 Jewish people living at present in Germany have come by this way.
As the reader may know, there is another museum in Amsterdam without that name. It is the famous Anne Frank's House. Unfortunately we noticed a long queue of tourists there, and gave up the idea of a visit.
I would like you to kindly consult the next one. There may be a short reference to the Jewish question there also.
The first was the "Resistance Museum", Amsterdam. As the name suggests it was on the repression on, and resistance by, the Dutch people against the Germans during the Second World War, and, although under a different name, it was a de facto Jewish Museum by half.
It analysed the behaviour of the Dutch people under the occupation using the concepts-very useful and interesting-of adjust(or adapt), collaborate or resist. The Unie(Union) movement may be called a way of adjusting. It was started in July '40, shortly after the invasion, in order to prevent the Dutch Nazi Party from grasping the administration. One photo showed a large number of men and women, mostly well-dressed, lining up in the streets to join it. But the movement did not collaborate as much as the Germans had hoped, and was banned in December '42.
After one year of occupation the Jewish were given their own ID, with a large 'J' on it. But their first uprising took place in February '41, and although it was suppressed it was joined by a large number of Communists, transport and dock workers. In March '43 they burnt the Registry Office.
The "Jewish Historical Museum", Amsterdam, is mainly on their history, and is also worth seeing.
The Jewish people started coming to this area around 1600. They came from different directions where, like Eastern Europe, there was not much freedom. Interestingly the development of the Dutch overseas commercial empire also gave the Jews an opportunity to migrate to Brazil, Surinam, West Indies, or New Amsterdam(New York). There were 60,000 Jews in the last-mentioned when the Second War broke out.
The number of Jews in the whole country at present is 43,000, of whom about half live in Amsterdam and nearby. 57% are not practicing their religion. Could this be one reason why they
prefer to remain in the Netherlands than to migrate to Israel?
Finally, after leaving Amsterdam, we visited the "Jewish Museum" in Berlin. It is a huge building intended to make you feel that you are in an underground room, made of concrete, cold, without windows, and prison-like, and are likely to lose your sense of equilibrium with the slopes and all that.
We have learned that of the 520,000 Jewish people who were in Germany at the time of the Nazi seizure, 260,000, just half, had escaped abroad. But it was banned in October '38, which opened the way to the 'last solution'.
One more interesting figure was that after the unification in '91, there has been a steady flow of the former Soviet Jews according to a treaty, and most of the 100,000 Jewish people living at present in Germany have come by this way.
As the reader may know, there is another museum in Amsterdam without that name. It is the famous Anne Frank's House. Unfortunately we noticed a long queue of tourists there, and gave up the idea of a visit.
I would like you to kindly consult the next one. There may be a short reference to the Jewish question there also.
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