Saturday, February 28, 2009

Amsterdams finest hour!

Today I went to the market and history jumped out on me. On a wall I walk by every Saturday was this.







Feb 1941 The workers of Amsterdam stood up for the city's Jewish community and organised a strike to stop the deportations. Many workers were shot down. Many of the organisers were murdered and the brutes got their way.
The head of the Amsterdam police was a keen collaborator with the occupation and holocaust. He was the lover of the head of the Gestapo. They had met in Paris before the war at the meeting that helped set up Interpol.
With the state giving in to the invader it was real courage for the working class Amsterdamers to support their neighbours. This was the site of the home of one of the organisers of the strike and resistance fighter.
May we never forget them.

2 comments:

Ana said...

Nevermore!
May we never forget.

Anonymous said...

First, I'd like to say the comment you left me made the most sense, and hit home with me more than any other...obviously, you are living it as a caregiver so....

Many years back I read some writings by Otto Frank & also some by Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper on this. I don't think people now, in their relative safety, realize how very brave those citizens were.
~Mary