UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Signs of the Shoah: The Hollandsche Schouwburg as a site of memory Duindam, D.A. Publication date 2016 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Duindam, D. A. (2016). Signs of the Shoah: The Hollandsche Schouwburg as a site of memory. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:23 Sep 2021 Signs of the Shoah Signs of the Shoah: The Hollandsche Schouwburg as a Site of Memory investigates the postwar development of the Hollandsche Schouwburg, an in situ Shoah memorial museum in Amsterdam, within the fields of memory, heritage and museum studies. During World War II, over forty-six thousand Jews were imprisoned in this former theater before being deported to the transit camps. In 1962, it became the first national Shoah memorial of the Netherlands and in 1993, a small exhibition was added. In the spring of 2016, the National Holocaust Museum opened, which consists of the Hollandsche Schouwburg and a new satellite space across the street. This dissertation deals with the question how this site of painful heritage became an important memorial museum dedicated to the memory of the persecution of the Dutch Jews. It is argued that this former theater was not a site of oblivion before 1962 but rather a material reminder of the persecution of the Jews which at that time was not an articulated part of the hegemonic memory discourse of the war in the Netherlands. The memorial was gradually appropriated by important Jewish institutions through the David Duindam installment of Yom HaShoah, an educational exhibition and a wall of names. These are analyzed not by focusing on material authenticity, but instead a case is made for Signs of the Shoah latent indexicality: visitors actively produce narratives by searching for traces of the past. This entails an ongoing The Hollandsche Schouwburg as a Site of Memory creative process of meaning-making that allows sites of memory to expand and proliferate beyond their borders. An important question therefore is how the Hollandsche Schouwburg affects its direct surroundings. David Duindam SIGNS OF THE SHOAH THE HOLLANDSCHE SCHOUWBURG AS A SITE OF MEMORY DAVID DUINDAM Colofon Cover design by Marrigje Rikken Cover artwork by Machteld Aardse and Femke Kempkes Cover photograph by Andrea Jutta Röell Printed by Uitgeverij BOXPress || Proefschriftmaken.nl SIGNS OF THE SHOAH THE HOLLANDSCHE SCHOUWBURG AS A SITE OF MEMORY ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op dinsdag 28 juni 2016, te 10:00 uur door David Arthur Duindam geboren te Leiden Promotiecommissie: Promotor: prof. dr. F.P.I.M. van Vree Universiteit van Amsterdam Copromotor: prof. dr. R. van der Laarse Universiteit van Amsterdam Overige leden: prof. dr. N.D. Adler Universiteit van Amsterdam prof. dr. M. Hirsch Columbia University prof. dr. J.C.A. Kolen Universiteit Leiden prof. dr. J.J. Noordegraaf Universiteit van Amsterdam prof. dr. A. Rigney Universiteit Utrecht dr. P.A.L. Bijl Universiteit van Amsterdam dr. I.A.M. Saloul Universiteit van Amsterdam Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen This research was supported by Fonds 21 (formerly SNS Reaal Fonds), the Rothschild Foundation Europe and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). It was a collaboration with the Jewish Historical Museum Amsterdam and part of the research program “The Dynamics of Memory. The Netherlands in the Second World War”, an independent research line within the NWO thematic program Cultural Dynamics. Table of Contents Prologue 1 Chapter 1: The Dynamics of Sites of Memory 17 1. Performing Memory and the Remediation of the Past 17 2. Remnants of the Past: Heritage and the Museum 25 3. The Spatial and Performative Character of Urban Memory 31 Chapter 2: The Construction of an In Situ Memorial Site: Framing Painful Heritage 39 1. National Framing and Silent Memories: The Persecution of the Jews as Part of Collective Suffering 42 2. Honoring the memory of victims: pride and national debt 49 3. Addressing Painful Heritage: Representation and Appropriation 61 Chapter 3: The Performance of Memory: The Making of a Memorial Museum 75 1. Place-Making and Spatial Narratives: Early Commemorations 77 2. A Public Memorial 84 3. Yom HaShoah as a Dutch-Jewish Commemoration 92 4. From Memorial to Memorial Museum 100 Chapter 4: The Fragmented Memorial Museum: Indexicality and Self-Inscription 125 1. The In Situ Memorial Museum: Mediation and Latent Indexicality 134 2. Conflicting Scripts, Routing and Self-Exhibition 142 3. Performing the Site: Walking and Self-Inscription 155 Chapter 5: The Proliferation of Spatial Memory: Borders, Façades and Dwellings 169 1. Proliferation and Demarcation of Sites of Memory 172 2. The Façade and the Passerby: Dissonance and Interaction 179 3. The House as Index, the House as Dwelling: Collaborative Memory Projects 188 Epilogue 199 Summary 213 Samenvatting 217 Previous publications and co-authorship 221 Acknowledgements 223 Bibliography 225 Prologue The lush, green avenue feels like a retreat from the hectic city center of Amsterdam. There are no hordes of tourists here and both the scale and architecture of this district seem pleasant. The road is divided into three lanes: one for bicycles, one for cars and in the middle a tramway. At first sight, there is nothing special to be observed in this everyday scene. On the left hand is a tram stop and across the Figure P. 1. Photograph David Duindam street stands a stately building (see figure P.1). Dutch sounding words Hollandsche Schouwburg are written on the façade in large silver letters, partially concealed by a tree. According to the brochure of the Jewish Cultural Quarter, it is the ‘National Holocaust Memorial’. From the outside, this Shoah memorial resembles a functioning theater.1 Its 19th century façade is 1 Throughout this dissertation, I use the term Shoah to refer to the Nazi persecution of the Jews instead of Holocaust, unless Holocaust is used by the quoted party. Neither term covers the underlying historical processes in their full complexity. Holocaust carries the Christian meaning of burnt offering, implying that the persecution of the Jews was a sacrifice. Shoah means catastrophe and carries the Hebrew tradition of destruction with it, and as such turns away from the methodological and organized Nazi genocide. However, as we address the memory of these events, I believe it can be justified to use the term preferred by a large part of the older generations of the Dutch Jewish community and the staff of the Hollandsche Schouwburg. See also chapter 2.2. adorned with classicist figures. Venus, the embodiment of love and beauty, is the central figurine of the pediment and cherubs adorn the frieze. Without any previous knowledge, or the brochure in hand, one could expect to find a theater inside. Nothing indicates that during World War II, more than forty-six thousand Jewish citizens were detained in this building before their deportation via Dutch transit camps to Eastern European concentration and extermination camps. Upon entering the memorial, one notices that inside, little of the former theater has remained the same. The central entrance hall provides access to several spaces. On the left, a movie is screened; on the right books and DVD’s about the Shoah are displayed on a table next to the reception desk. If you are a first-time visitor, it is not entirely clear what to do next. One can start by watching the movie and walk to the adjacent wall of names, or go straight out into the back where a large open space holds a commemorative pylon. Another option is to go upstairs where an exhibition has been installed. The building that seems intact as a theater from the outside is quite a maze once you enter. There is no clear routing and it does not have a univocal function. Do people go here to commemorate or to find out more about the history of this building? Out of curiosity, or simply as part of a tourist sightseeing excursion? We usually do not ask ourselves why we go to historically significant sites when we visit a city, since it is such an obvious part of getting to know a place. In situ sites of memory such as the Hollandsche Schouwburg seem to automatically embody their own past because of their history. However, when we investigate how this former theater came to be a memorial museum we realize that there is nothing self-evident about its current status. The authenticity of this site is not located in its materiality alone. As I will demonstrate, this authenticity is staged by its presentation and produced by the visitor.