Amsterdam Removes Holocaust Memorial Plaque After Residents Complain

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — City workers dislodged and relocated a postcard-sized memorial plaque from the entrance to the former home in Amsterdam of a Holocaust victim following complaints by residents.

The plaque — a brass cobblestone bearing the name of Joachim Elte that in 2014 was embedded into the sidewalk of 3 Nicolass Maes Street — was moved to a location “as far away as possible from the door” of the two residents, who have recently sued the city to have the plaque removed altogether, Sebastiaan Capel, the mayor of Amsterdam’s South district told Het Parool daily on Friday.

The two residents, who were not named, recently filed with a preliminary relief judge a motion for an injunction ordering the memorial cobblestone’s removal because Capel has ignored their demands that it be removed from in front of their residence, the daily reported.

In their motion, the two residents said they found it too confrontational to have to constantly be reminded, because of the memorial cobblestone, of the deportation and murder of Elte, a 51-year-old accountant who died at a Nazi concentration camp in 1945. They also argued it “compromises the atmosphere” of their upscale neighborhood and their privacy and that of their children because it attracts onlookers.