The history of the memorial
Urn with ashes
In January 1952, seven years after the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Polish government organised an international memorial. Delegations of Auschwitz survivors from various countries were
invited to attend the international memorial. As part of the ceremony, each delegation - including the Dutch representatives - filled an urn with ashes. This ash is the only tangible reminder of the millions of people murdered in
Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Dutch urn was placed under a small tombstone with the inscribed words 'Never Again Auschwitz' in the Amsterdam Ooster Cemetery.
Mirror Memorial
The annual memorial attracted increasingly more people. By the mid 1970s, the Auschwitz Memorial ceremony had become a concept. The memorial site became too small. During the 1977 ceremony, the new memorial designed by poet and sculptor Jan Wolkers
was unveiled at the Amsterdam Ooster Cemetery. It consists of cracked mirrors that reflect the sky. According to Wolkers, the cracked mirrors symbolise that "the sky will never be the same after Auschwitz". In 1993, the renovated mirror memorial,
together with the urn, was moved to the Amsterdam Werthheim Park. Only days after the unveiling in 1993 the memorial was vandalised. It was damaged again in 1997, 1999, and 2004.