The Culture of Memory in Europe

Today in 2023 the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust are far away and long ago for many, if not most, Americans.

In Europe it is often the reverse, with memorial and commemoration events observed annually.

On a recent research trip to Europe I was privileged to observe this culture of memory:

The evening of May 4th I witnessed a commemoration event in Amsterdam at the monument at the corner of the Apollolaan and the Beethovenstraat:

“As a reprisal for an action by the Resistance, 29 prisoners from the House of Detention at the Weteringschans were transferred to this location by the German occupiers and shot without trial in the early morning of October 24, 1944.”

This year’s speaker was Rabbi Menno ten Brink of the Liberal Jewish Congregation. He spoke in Dutch, and here is a segment of his translated speech:

Let us not only think of our family and those people who were murdered because they were Jewish or Sinti and Roma, but also of those people who were in the resistance, who helped my parents go into hiding, who actively helped to the good side, who, like the 29 men here on the Apollolaan, were murdered by German and Dutch Nazis. People who have committed themselves to making the world a better world than it all too often was and unfortunately is.

If we will be silent for 2 minutes in a moment, let’s stand here in reverence and also remember those people who, with unimaginable courage, saved our lives and ensured that the Jewish community could continue despite everything.

At 8 p.m. local time two minutes of silence were observed throughout the country to commemorate Dutch civilians and soldiers who died since the outbreak of the Second World War. These two minutes were followed by people laying flowers at the monument. And the next day – May 5: Liberation Day – I spotted flowers placed at other monuments throughout the city.

Today, visiting what was a vibrant Jewish quarter of Amsterdam until the Nazis deported the Jewish residents, you can see the Dutch Holocaust Memorial of Names designed by Studio Libeskind honoring the 102,000 Dutch Jewish victims and the 220 Dutch Sinti and Roma victims.

And as you walk around the former Jewish quarter, you will come across numerous Stolpersteine –Stumbling Stones – commemorating the residents who lived at those addresses before these men, women and children were deported to their deaths by the Nazis during WWII.

Why is this culture of memory so important 78 years after the end of World War II in 1945?

Because remembering can be an important contribution to not repeating the horrors of history. And at this time of political turmoil in American culture, it is especially important to remember to what ends dangerous dogma can lead.

Instead of picnics on our American Memorial Day, if we instead had two minutes of silence throughout the country and widespread commemoration events, perhaps we Americans would better appreciate our freedom and resolve to maintain it.