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Articles

Learning About the Holocaust: Opportunities and Challenges for the National Holocaust Museum in the Netherlands

Pages 26-36 | Received 15 Sep 2023, Accepted 25 Nov 2023, Published online: 09 Mar 2024
 

ABSTRACT

Amsterdam’s National Holocaust Museum is due to open in March 2024. It is the first and only museum to tell the story of the attempt by the Nazis to eradicate Jews from the Netherlands, a history of segregation, persecution, and murder. Yet the story is also one of rescue, survival, and solidarity. One of the museum’s main goals is to engage visitors by involving them in a learning experience, in particular, to encourage young people to study and to develop the skills they need to be able to understand the past, to see how this impacts the present, and to recognize and challenge discrimination and antisemitism today. This article begins by sketching the presentation in the new museum and examines how the museum’s educational facilities (presentation and programs) encourage audiences to think about what they can do to combat discrimination in general, and antisemitism in particular.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 “National Holocaust Names Memorial,” National Holocaust Names Memorial, accessed November 8, 2023. https://www.holocaustnamenmonument.nl/en/home/

2 “Anne Frank House,” Anne Frank House, accessed November 8, 2023. https://www.annefrank.org/en/museum/group-visits/school-visits/. “The Resistance Museum Amsterdam,” Resistance Museum Amsterdam, accessed November 8, 2023. https://www.verzetsmuseum.org/en/education.

3 Marc van Berkel, “WOII en de Holocaust in het voortgezet onderwijs,” HAN University of Applied Sciences, accessed November 8, 2023. https://www.han.nl/nieuws/2021/12/woii-en-de-holocaust-in-het-voortgezet-onderwijs/.

4 Van Berkel, “WOII en de Holocaust.”

5 Claims Conference, “New Study Reveals Nearly One Quarter of Dutch Millennials and Gen Z Believe the Holocaust Was a Myth or Exaggerated,” accessed November 8, 2023, https://www.claimscon.org/netherlands-study/

6 Claims Conference, “New Study reveals.”

7 Bart Wallet, “Niet gebrek aan kennis, maar vooral bagatelliseren van Holocaust is zorgelijk: ‘Het wordt getrivialiseerd’,” Het Parool, January 25, 2023.

8 Anne Frank Stichting, “Onderzoek naar antisemitisme onder jongeren,” accessed November 8, 2023 https://www.annefrank.org/nl/over-ons/onderzoek/sociaal-onderzoek/onderzoek-naar-antisemitisme/antisemitisme-onder-jongeren-nederland/

9 Marc van Berkel, “WOII en de Holocaust in het voortgezet onderwijs,” HAN University of Applied Sciences, accessed November 8, 2023. https://www.han.nl/nieuws/2021/12/woii-en-de-holocaust-in-het-voortgezet-onderwijs/.

10 Petra Katzenstein, I ASK for open minds: methode en handbook bij training (Amsterdam, 2019).

11 Marc van Berkel, “Met films over de Tweede Wereldoorlog kan je het gesprek over Oekraïne openen,” Netwerk filmeducatie, accessed November 8, 2023. https://filmeducatie.nl/inspiratie/kijken-naar-de-oorlog

12 Bart Wallet, “Niet gebrek aan kennis, maar vooral bagatelliseren van Holocaust is zorgelijk: ‘Het wordt getrivialiseerd’,” Het Parool, January 25, 2023.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julia Sarbo

Julia Sarbo is an educator and historian in the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She is responsible for the educational programs and activities at the National Holocaust Museum and the memorial Hollandsche Schouwburg, the former deportation place in Amsterdam. She earned her MA in history and education at the University of Groningen and worked for the Anne Frank House and the National Committee on May 4 and 5 that organized the Dutch National commemoration of the Second World War.

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