Amsterdam places mirror on spot ‘Forbidden for Jews’ | Inland

It is an initiative of Niels van Deuren, in collaboration with the Amsterdam 4 and 5 May committee and the municipality of Amsterdam. Van Deuren was inspired by the speech of King Willem-Alexander during the Remembrance Day of May 4, 2020. „Sobibor started in the Vondelpark. With a sign: Prohibited for Jews ”, the king said on an empty Dam.

A year later, the memorial, which consists of a mirror and text board, was realized. The mirror invites the viewer to think about what he or she would do when they see injustice. Like in 1940, when the anti-Jewish measures started.

“And what you do now, if you detect racism, discrimination or intolerance somewhere. Can you look yourself in the eye? The memorial refers to the ‘looking away’ that happened during the Second World War, and builds a bridge to the looking away that still happens today when people see injustice, ”says Van Deuren. The title of the sign, ‘Sobibor – What do you do’, refers to a poem by the executed resistance fighter Gerrit van der Veen, published in the resistance magazine De Vrije Artist of March 1944.

In the Second World War, the anti-Jewish measures followed each other faster and faster. In 1940 access to more and more facilities was prohibited. The wearing of the Star of David was introduced in May 1942 and deportations started in July 1942. In extermination camps such as Sobibor and Auschwitz, more than 100,000 Jewish Dutch were killed.

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