Fragments of the Holocaust : the Amsterdam Hollandsche Schouwburg as a site of memory /
David Duindam.
- [Place of publication not identified] : AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRES, (c)2018.
- 1 online resource.
Includes bibliographies and index.
Cover; Table of Contents; Prologue; 1. The Dynamics of Sites of Memory; 1. Performing Memory and the Remediation of the Past; 2. Remnants of the Past: Heritage and the Museum; 3. The Spatial and Performative Character of Urban Memory; 2. The Construction of an In Situ Memorial Site; Framing Painful Heritage; 1. National Framing and Silent Memories: The Persecution of the Jews as Part of Collective Suffering; 2. Honoring the Memory of Victims: Pride and National Debt; 3. Addressing Painful Heritage: Representation and Appropriation; 3. The Performance of Memory; The Making of a Memorial Museum 1. Place-Making and Spatial Narratives: Early Commemorations2. A Public Memorial; 3. Yom HaShoah as a Dutch Jewish Commemoration; 4. From Memorial to Memorial Museum; 4. The Fragmented Memorial Museum; Indexicality and Self-Inscription; 1. The In Situ Memorial Museum: Mediation and Latent Indexicality; 2. Conflicting Scripts, Routing and Self-Exhibition; 3. Performing the Site: Walking and Self-Inscription; 5. The Spatial Proliferation of Memory; Borders, Façades and Dwellings; 1. Proliferation and Demarcation of Sites of Memory; 2. The Façade and the Passerby: Dissonance and Interaction 3. The House as Index, the House as Dwelling: Collaborative Memory ProjectsEpilogue; Acknowledgements; Bibliography; Index; List of Illustrations; Figure P.1 Wall of names; Figure 2.1 Courtyard; Figure 3. 1 Nieuw Israelietisch Weekblad, May 14, 1948; Figure 3.2 Architect Jan Leupen replaced the central entrance doors with open fencing, c. 1962; Figure 3.3 Architect Léon Waterman designed the chapelle ardente inside the former theater building, c. 1962; Figure 3.4 Architect Jan Leupen designed the courtyard, c. 1962 Figure 3.5 Victor Levie designed the wall of names in 1993 that replaced the chapelle ardenteFigure 3.6 Stone pavement laid with embankments that represent the former seating arrangement in the theater; Figure 3.7 Stone pavement laid with embankments that represent the former seating arrangement in the theater; Figure 3.8 Display of theater history; Figure 3.9 Display of 'Nazi ideology' next to entrance exhibition; Figure 3.10 Beginning of chronological exhibition; Figure 3.11 Artifacts from deported Jews Figure 3.12 Photograph and baby clothes of Jaap Wertheim, who survived the war in hidingFigure 3.13 Cardboard cutout of woman delivering baby to safety; Figure 4.1 Historical photograph installed in outside space behind the courtyard; Figure 4.2 Backside of panel; Figure 4.3 View from garden toward the courtyard; Figure 4.4 Historical photograph installed on the back of the former theater hall that shows Jewish deportees climbing into a neighboring garden; Figure 4.5 Stones laid by visitors on the base of the pylon
The memory of the Holocaust is naturally fragmented because its violent and traumatic history prohibits a comprehensive and unified understanding, and this is why museums and other sites of memory remain so important. David Duindam examines how the Hollandsche Schouwburg-a former theatre in Amsterdam used for the registration and deportation of nearly 50,000 Jews-became a memorial museum, and how it will continue to be a meaningful site for future generations. In the immediate postwar years, this building stood as a reminder of a painful past, but by the 1960s it became the first Holocaust memorial of national importance, and in the 1990s, an educational exhibition was added, further allowing visitors to invest and immerse themselves in this site of memory. This books argues how the Hollandsche Schouwburg, and other comparable sites, will remain important in the future as indexical fragments where new generations can engage with the Holocaust on a personal and truly concrete level.