Teh One Who Knocks
04-03-2017, 12:20 PM
By Ian Miles Cheong - Heat Street
http://i.imgur.com/5hW5wRBh.jpg
Sounding off about how much you hate fascism is trendy among left-wing Europeans, but some Dutch citizens are more than eager to look the other way from fascism’s greatest crime.
In that vein, two Amsterdam residents sued the city to have a postcard-sized Holocaust memorial removed because it “compromises the atmosphere” of their upscale neighborhood.
http://i.imgur.com/rmt0Xga.jpg
The bronze cobblestone remembering the millions murdered in the Holocaust is one of 400 laid throughout the city to remind people of the crimes against humanity that took place during the Second World War.
Like much of Europe, Amsterdam was occupied by the Nazis and its Jewish population sent to die in concentration camps.
However, the two residents demanded the plaque by their house, bearing the name of former resident Joachim Elte, be moved.
They claimed it was “too confrontational to have to be constantly reminded” of the Holocaust at home.
As a result, the plaque was moved further down the street – “as far away as possible” from the people who complained.
Per the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Elte was a 51-year-old Jewish Amsterdam resident, who was deported and ultimately murdered in a concentration camp in 1945.
The two residents, who were not named, argued that the placement of the memorial “compromises the atmosphere” of the upscale neighborhood because of onlookers who visit Holocaust memorial sites.
The two complainants are not thought to be Holocaust survivors, or have any known traumas from the war.
Amsterdam received two complaints in the past over the cobblestones: one by a Holocaust survivor who said it brought back bad memories, and another by a hotel that claimed the memorial hurt their business.
In the first case, the cobblestone was relocated elsewhere on the same street, but the second request was denied.
The latest case is just one of several reported instances of resistance by Dutch residents against Holocaust commemorations. Amsterdam citizens previously blocked plans for architect Daniel Libeskind to erect a wall memorializing 102,000 Dutch Holocaust victims along the city’s Weesperstraat Boulevard, delaying construction for almost a decade. They complained that the wall’s projected flood of tourists would spoil their neighborhood.
http://i.imgur.com/5hW5wRBh.jpg
Sounding off about how much you hate fascism is trendy among left-wing Europeans, but some Dutch citizens are more than eager to look the other way from fascism’s greatest crime.
In that vein, two Amsterdam residents sued the city to have a postcard-sized Holocaust memorial removed because it “compromises the atmosphere” of their upscale neighborhood.
http://i.imgur.com/rmt0Xga.jpg
The bronze cobblestone remembering the millions murdered in the Holocaust is one of 400 laid throughout the city to remind people of the crimes against humanity that took place during the Second World War.
Like much of Europe, Amsterdam was occupied by the Nazis and its Jewish population sent to die in concentration camps.
However, the two residents demanded the plaque by their house, bearing the name of former resident Joachim Elte, be moved.
They claimed it was “too confrontational to have to be constantly reminded” of the Holocaust at home.
As a result, the plaque was moved further down the street – “as far away as possible” from the people who complained.
Per the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Elte was a 51-year-old Jewish Amsterdam resident, who was deported and ultimately murdered in a concentration camp in 1945.
The two residents, who were not named, argued that the placement of the memorial “compromises the atmosphere” of the upscale neighborhood because of onlookers who visit Holocaust memorial sites.
The two complainants are not thought to be Holocaust survivors, or have any known traumas from the war.
Amsterdam received two complaints in the past over the cobblestones: one by a Holocaust survivor who said it brought back bad memories, and another by a hotel that claimed the memorial hurt their business.
In the first case, the cobblestone was relocated elsewhere on the same street, but the second request was denied.
The latest case is just one of several reported instances of resistance by Dutch residents against Holocaust commemorations. Amsterdam citizens previously blocked plans for architect Daniel Libeskind to erect a wall memorializing 102,000 Dutch Holocaust victims along the city’s Weesperstraat Boulevard, delaying construction for almost a decade. They complained that the wall’s projected flood of tourists would spoil their neighborhood.