Amsterdam Monument To Name 102K Holocaust Victims
A Holocaust monument will be erected in the Dutch capital next year naming 102,000 victims of the Nazi occupation, giving long overdue recognition to those deported to death camps, campaigners said on Wednesday.
The “Holocaust Names Monument”, the first of its kind in the Netherlands, will be designed by Jewish American architect Daniel Libeskind. It is to be completed in 2015, 70 years after the end of World War Two, authorities in the city, home of Anne Frank’s house, said in a statement.
“In percentage terms, The Netherlands had the highest deportation rate in Western Europe, but there is no such monument here to honour their memory,” said Jacques Grishaver, chairman of the Dutch Auschwitz Committee.
“Their names had vanished into thin air. Now the family members of the victims will have a place to go and a name on a plaque to touch.”
Like similar monuments in other European cities, the Dutch memorial will list the full names of all 102,000 Jews, Roma and Sinti who were deported from the Netherlands to Nazi concentration and death camps, the committee said.
Among those deported from the Netherlands was Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager who hid in an Amsterdam canal house until being deported with her family.
The monument will cost roughly 5 million euros ($6.9 million), which the committee hopes to pay for with donations from private individuals, corporations, foundations and governments.
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