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NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 21:36
A new monument has been unveiled at the German war cemetery in the Limburg village of Ysselsteyn. It is a memorial to all victims of Nazi rule in the Netherlands during the Second World War.
Ysselsteyn is the only German war cemetery in the Netherlands. Nearly 32,000 people are buried there, mainly German soldiers. Also SS members, collaborators and German citizens who lived in the Netherlands during the war.
In the middle of the burial grounds there are now five columns, Gates of Memorywrites 1Limburg. Four of them contain the names of places where Dutch people were imprisoned: Scheveningen, Amersfoort, Vught and Westerbork. The fifth column contains a text about the 102,000 Jews, Sinti and Roma and thousands of other victims of the Nazi regime.
Unveiled by Chief Rabbi
The fact that victims, unlike the German soldiers, often had no grave, was the reason for this monument, according to the cemetery director. “It’s nice that there is a place for them now. Even here: in the enemy’s cemetery.”
The monument was unveiled by Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs. Three years ago he signed a petition against the commemoration of war criminals in Ysselsteyn. “Yes, I was sharp. But that was possible then,” he told the regional broadcaster. “And you see what came out of it.”
Jacobs now calls the cemetery a recognition that people can turn into monsters, but that we can also talk about it. “Something has been broken: time and the spirit. And that is essential and important. This moment moves me.”
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2023-12-04 20:36:01
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