Groningen Continues to Remember

Gate of Auschwitz extermination camp © Lisa Pace

The local community in Groningen came together to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Foundation Synagogue Groningen held a Remembrance ceremony on Sunday, January 26, focusing on the impact of the Holocaust on the children of survivors.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day was established in 2005 in memory of all victims of the Holocaust at the hands of the Nazi regime. The decision of the date for the annual commemoration fell on January 27 since it coincides with the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp by the Red Army in 1945.

During German occupation, the Netherlands suffered the highest rate of Jewish deportation in Western Europe, as approximately 107,000 Dutch Jews and Jewish refugees were deported. Of these, according to historian Bert Jan Flim, only 5,500 returned, reports the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Of all Dutch provinces, Groningen was particularly affected by the events of World War II. According to Geert Volders, director of the Foundation Synagogue Groningen, between 1942 and 1945 the province lost 90 percent of its Jewish population, falling from over 3,000 to about 240 people. 

In an interview with The Glass Room, Geert Volders explains how the meaning of the Holocaust for the city of Groningen has evolved over the last 80 years.

After World War II, Dutch society saw itself as a victim of the German occupation and thus not responsible for the horrors of the Holocaust. “There was no empathy for survivors whatsoever,” says Volders. At the same time, the survivors’ community long struggled to share what it had experienced. “Many people couldn't face what really happened,” says Volders. “They didn't dare to say, my uncle was killed. They would use sentences like “he went to a camp”, “he didn't come back”.”

It was not until the 1960s and 1970s that survivors started to face their past and that Dutch society developed more awareness about the fate of the Jews, Romas and Sintis during the occupation. From the late 1990s, through the Stolpersteine initiative – which placed stones with victims’ names in front of their last home – the commemoration became more personal. “You're no longer talking about a group,” says Volders. “You're talking about this little 6-year-old girl who lived here, at this spot. It's something very personal.”

However, Volders feels that today “the memory is fading,” as there are fewer and fewer living eyewitnesses to keep us “in touch with history.”

“Can you give me a guarantee that it will never, ever happen again?”

When asked to share a story which is particularly meaningful to him, Volders tells of that time a Jewish survivor in Groningen donated the yellow badge he had to wear as a child. What struck him was not only the fact of receiving such a historic symbol, but especially the words that accompanied this donation. 

Volders explains that Synagogue Groningen always asks donors if they want their name mentioned when the object is displayed. “He said, no, I don't want this because maybe my children will get in trouble,” says Volders. “You can't explain to me why it happened in the 1930s, so can you give me a guarantee that it will never, ever happen again?”

“What struck me is that the past and present are so close,” adds Volders. Although he acknowledges that new generations cannot be blamed for the mistakes of their forefathers, he says that, as a society, we must stay in touch with our past. 

He concludes, “Can we still recognize when our society is poisoned with hatred, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and so on? I don't like to talk about guilt, but we must be aware of our past and face what happened.”