Sunday 14 - Thursday 18 of May, 2006

Re-Opening Some Circles

Last day in Amsterdam, last day of the trip!!

We awoke early to leave the campsite and drove into Amsterdam to pick up the luggage we had stored at the B & B. We parked there and packed up all of our delicious souvenirs (too many of course--next time: no souvenirs), cleaned out the van, decided what to give away, left the newly packed luggage at the B & B and returned the van before our 2:00 PM deadline.

For comparison's sake:

Three Museums In A Day

Another Moving Sho'a Memorial

We hurried to the Hollandsche Schouwburg [This Web site is quite good.], the Dutch memorial to the Jews at the deportation site.…. again with the list of names. The name of every Amsterdam Jewish family deported is etched in glass on large panels in what at one time was the lobby of a theater. We found our families' names:

Others had brought the customary pebbles and the candles we had seen in Poland on Easter.

To mark the site of the theater, stood a pillar monument, with the partially destroyed, bare, walls of the old theatre. Upstairs, above the "lobby" were displays about Jewish life in Amsterdam. Again, it is amazing to consider that even in 1942, Jews were having babies and getting married, as depicted in the exhibit. "davka" despite everything.

Recognition of Resistance to the Nazis

The Dutch Resistance Museum, around the corner, caused us to wonder whether Dutch resistance was greater than elsewhere and whether there are other museums about resistance. We don't remember seeing any other museums in our travels. The resistance of the Dutch really was quite widespread in the population, as exemplified by the general strikes There's even a monument to the dock strikers, nearby. This museum really is also worth seeing. It was there that Mark recognized the name Gerrit Van Der Veen. He decided to "open the circle" by taking a "portrait of the day" in front of the sign of the school near where we'd been staying.

A little research turns up a few more museums to resistance:

Norway's Resistance Museum
The Museum of Danish Resistance 1940-1945
The Shoah Museum in Belgium bills itself as The Mechelen Museum of Deportation and the Resistance
In France, the city of Lyon considers itself the center of the Resistance. We were aware of this appellation when we were there, but found no evidence of the "Centre d'histoire de la résistance et de la déportation
So, it is striking that in the little
Netherlands, not only is there this museum to the Resistance in Amsterdam, but also a National Museum in Overloon a National War and Resistance Museum.

Through Van Gogh to Rembrandt and Caravggio

Finally, we rushed by foot and tram to the Van Gogh Museum to see the Rembrandt-Caravaggio exhibition, the first time the works have been shown together, despite the fact that Rembrandt was very influenced by Caravaggio through his teacher.... Mark thinks he found a spelling error (or "typo") in the Balthazar's Banquet painting

[sorry: linkrot]
It appears that what should be a final nun (in God's hand): ן is a ז.

Next year in Africa, Israel, and who knows!!

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