Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research in The Netherlands
The Netherlands has a long tradition when it comes to commemorating the Second World War. Every year the fallen are remembered - soldiers, resistance fighters, victims of civil conflict, and those who died during the war in the former Dutch colony of East India. Since the 1970s the Holocaust has become increasingly prominent in this regard. More than 100,000 Dutch Jews (out of 140000 in total) were murdered during the war. This terrible tragedy continues to prompt many questions; how could this happen in the Netherlands?
Director Victims and Remembrance of the Ministry of VWS
Commemorative events
The Netherlands Government helps organise commemorative events, financing Remembrance Day, memorial centres, historical research and educational projects. Commemorative events are only possible if there is close cooperation between NGOs and the Government. The Netherlands Government focuses a great deal of attention on cooperation between specialists with the relevant expertise and government bodies.
The Netherlands is an original signatory to the Stockholm Declaration, and has been a member of the Task Force for International cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF) ever since. It is important that ITF member countries adopt a collective view on the possible forms of commemoration for the Holocaust and consider how they can help other countries by sharing their experiences. This is why the Netherlands are engaged in projects in Bosnia and Ukraine. But apart from being there to help, the Netherlands are there to learn. Awareness of the Holocaust in the Netherlands is strongly focused on the events that took place in our own country; the Holocaust outside the Netherlands, the sheer magnitude of the drama, is less well known.
At a time when the world seems to be getting smaller, it is extremely important to realise that what happened in the Netherlands was part of a bigger story. The ITF is an excellent platform for getting to know one another, exchanging and comparing methods, and putting shared knowledge to good use.
Education
The Netherlands Government includes World War Two and the Holocaust in particular into its national teaching curriculum. The subject is taught in every type of school. The Government also has a project policy whereby organisations can submit proposals on how to support teachers in this area. Every year 1.2 million euro is made available in funding.
Public information policy is always looking for connections with the present to highlight the contemporary significance. Much of the teaching material is designed to provoke discussion. Policy also focuses on providing supplementary materials, one such example being ‘The Quest', a book in comic strip format developed by the Anne Frank Foundation, and financed by the Government. Thanks to ITF contacts, this book is now being translated into German and Polish.
Monitoring is important here. How much does the average Dutch person know? What areas should be given special attention, and what are the appropriate target groups? At present teacher training, junior secondary education in the 14-15 year age group, and the international angle are the policy priorities. Several projects have been planned: a trip to Ravensbrück for secondary teacher training college students, projects at teacher training colleges for primary education, the comic strip format already mentioned, and exhibitions about Sobibor (to be held at Westerbork) and the Ukraine (to be held at Vught in 2009).
Remembrance
The moment for remembrance in the Netherlands is 4th May, Remembrance Day, when Her Majesty the Queen lays a wreath at the National Monument on Dam Square in Amsterdam. A two minute silence is observed throughout the country. Several other events are also held, such as the commemoration of the Holocaust on 27th January. This is usually attended by the President of the House of Representatives and a member of government.
Permanent reminders are present in the form of memorial centres financed by the Government: at Amersfoort, Vught, and Westerbork, for example. Location is important. The Anne Frank House draws more than a million visitors a year, most of them visitors from abroad.
Places in other countries where Dutch people died are also of great importance to the Netherlands Government. In recent years monuments have been unveiled at Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt, and the Dutch pavilion in Auschwitz has been refurbished. The Netherlands is currently working with Israel, Poland and Slovakia on the realisation of a memorial at Sobibor, where 34000 Dutch Jews were killed.
Research
The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) was founded in 1945. Following the Stockholm Declaration, the Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) was set up. Here research specifically related to the Holocaust is carried out. NIOD and the CHGS staff teach at the University of Amsterdam. International cooperation is a priority when it comes to research, and there are close ties between the CHGS and sister institutes in Scandinavia.
Apart from its research and teaching tasks, the CHGS provides post-graduate courses and fulfils a specific public function in relation to the Holocaust and other genocides. In recent years for example, experts from the Centre have participated in public discussions in the Netherlands concerning Bosnia and the Armenian genocide.
The government has also been investing in the Erfgoed van de Oorlog (‘Heritage of War') programme, providing 22 million euros in funding. The biggest challenge here is how to tell the story when there are no surviving eyewitnesses anymore. This is why the emphasis is on preserving as much of the available material - and unlocking as many of its secrets - as possible; recording the accounts of eyewitnesses, preserving historical records, photos and films, and building websites where everyone can find the information they are looking for. An excellent example of this is the national photo bank Image Bank WW2 (www.beeldbankwo2.nl), where more than 200000 photos from 18 different archives can be freely accessed.
