Reflecting on Chps 9-10: Geert Mak's Amsterdam

This reading, along with some similar themes in Brilliant Orange by David Winner, was incredibly insightful for me. I was mostly unaware how the Holocaust specifically affected Amsterdam. I have read about the Holocaust and walked the Dachau concentration camp grounds in Germany in 1999. Like others, I knew the Anne Frank story and even own The Diary of Anne Frank but was still shocked to know that 75-80,000 Jewish citizens were taken from Amsterdam, leaving only 5,000 in the area. One of the interesting stories within the history was the story of Gijs Van Hall, the courageous hero of one era who became an enemy from the youth perspective in a new era, the 1960’s. This story illustrated the value in processing traumatic events after they occur on many levels- national, community and personal levels- and the importance of both learning the history and grieving for the losses after such a trauma. It seems the youthful hatred of Van Hall was possible with a lack of understanding about his role in the resistance, with no desire to learn from the past. He was symbolic to the youth, standing for “inflexible authority” (p.292).

I remember in my visit to Dachau being shocked to witness young Japanese tourists playfully posing in front of the life-size photos of concentration camp prisoners, imitating their expressions and poses for the camera. It seemed to dishonor everything the place stood for; everything it was trying to say. So I don’t know that being told the history is enough. It must take a personal connection to make a difference. It seems that there was little process of learning, reflecting, and grieving; instead the focus was surviving, then rebuilding. Perhaps this is why in the 1974 World Cup football finals against Germany- about 30 years later- it was so heartbreaking for Amsterdam to lose, as Winner describes in Brilliant Orange. Some questions for reflection: How could the tragedy of losing so many Jews who were a significant part of Amsterdam life and culture been addressed differently after the war? Is it important to hold passive Amsterdammers (those who didn’t have direct roles in the Final Solution) accountable for what happened? Does Amsterdam, in 2006, still have steps to go through in order to heal from the Holocaust?