Text at the memorial
THE MURDER OF DUTCH JEWRY
On 10 May 1940, the day of the invasion by Nazi Germany, 140,000 Jewish men, women, and children lived in the Netherlands.
Between February 1941 and September 1944, more than 107,000 Jews were deported from the Netherlands. Only 5,200 survived the Nazi concentration camps and returned.
Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sobibor were camps in Poland. Auschwitz-Birkenau was a labour and extermination camp. Sobibor was constructed purely as an extermination camp. Approximately 60,000 Jews living in the Netherlands were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and 34,000 to Sobibor.
Most of the Jews from the Netherlands were murdered in these camps. Only 19 survived Sobibor and approximately 1150 survived Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The Nazis also persecuted the Sinti and Roma people living in the Netherlands. On 16 May 1944, 245 members of this community were rounded up and three days later deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only 30 of them survived.
The name Auschwitz has become an international symbol for the attempted destruction of the Jewish people everywhere.
The mirror memorial commemorates the millions of victims of racial hatred. It is a place of remembrance, grief, and reflection, a warning to all generations throughout the world.
The victims are not forgotten and they never shall be.