The Netherlands inaugurated the National Holocaust Museum on Sunday in a ceremony presided over by the Dutch king as well as Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose presence sparked protests due to the Israeli offensive carried out in Gaza.
The museum in Amsterdam tells the story of some of the 102,000 Jews who were deported from the Netherlands and murdered in Nazi camps, as well as the story of their structural persecution under the German occupation of World War II before the start of deportations.
The museum “gives a face and a voice to the Jewish victims of persecution in the Netherlands,” Dutch King Willem-Alexander said in his speech at the inauguration ceremony on Sunday. He “also shows us the devastating consequences that anti-Semitism can have“, he added.
“This is why we must continue to be aware of how things started and how they went from bad to worse“, said the king. Earlier, the king and the Israeli president visited the famous Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam.
Mr. Herzog welcomed the Netherlands’ initiative to create a new Holocaust museum amid rising anti-Semitism around the world.
“At this pivotal moment, this institution sends a clear and powerful message“, said Mr. Herzog. “_Remember! Remember the horrors born of hatred, anti-Semitism and racism, and never let them flourish again.”
Sunday’s ceremony took place against the backdrop of Israel’s devastating attacks on Gaza, which followed Hamas’s deadly incursions into southern Israel on October 7.
Demonstrations to demand a ceasefire
Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered, amid tight security, on Waterloo Square in central Amsterdam, near the museum and synagogue. They waved Palestinian flags, chanted “Never again” and demanded an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The leaders of the demonstration stressed that they were opposed to Mr. Herzog’s presence, not to the museum and what it commemorates. “For us Jews, these museums are part of our history, our past.”, said Joana Cavaco, an anti-war activist with the Jewish collective Erev Rav, speaking to the crowd before the ceremony. She added: “How is it possible that such a sacred space is used to normalize genocide today?” Three-quarters of Dutch Jews were among the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis.
Isaac Herzog was among Israeli leaders named in a January order by the United Nations’ highest court demanding that Israel do everything in its power to prevent death, destruction and prevent any acts of genocide in the Strip. from Gaza.
He accused the International Court of Justice of having distorted his remarks in the judgment. Israel has strongly rejected South Africa’s allegations that the military offensive in Gaza violates the Genocide Convention.
“I was disgusted by the way they distorted my words, using very, very partial and fragmented quotes, with the intention of supporting an unfounded legal claim“>, a few days after the decision.
A Dutch pro-Palestinian organization, The Rights Forum, described Mr. Herzog’s presence as “a slap in the face of Palestinians who can only watch helplessly as Israel murders their loved ones and destroys their land.”
In a statement released before Sunday’s opening, the Jewish cultural district that manages it said:deeply concerned about the war and the consequences of this conflict, above all for the citizens of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank“.
He is “all the more disturbing as the National Holocaust Museum opens its doors while the war continues to rage. Our mission is all the more urgent“.