Amsterdam and UvA highlight Jewish urban past: “Too much emphasis still placed on the war”
Through a traditional hut, a gaming app, and an alleyway tour, UvA researchers want to make former life in Jewish neighborhoods more visible. Professor of Jewish studies Bart Wallet comments: “If you walk around Vlooienburg or Uilenburg now, almost everything reminds you of World War II.”
Vlooienburg and Uilenburg, two artificial islands in the center of Amsterdam, formed the heart of the Jewish neighborhood. They were truly poor, working-class neighborhoods, but with a vibrant street life.
Until World War II broke out. By the late 1940s, almost nothing was left of these two neighborhoods. Many of the residents were deported and murdered. The remaining buildings deteriorated and were then demolished to make way for new construction.
This horrific wartime past has become increasingly visible in the former Jewish quarter in recent years, such as in the form of memorial tiles placed last year on Waterlooplein - part of the former Vlooienburg - in memory of deported Jewish residents. Or with the Holocaust Names Monument, a little further down Weesperstraat, unveiled by the king in 2021.
Everyday life
Traces of the bygone, everyday life of the Jewish population on Vlooienburg and Uilenburg, on the other hand, can hardly be found anymore. “If you walk around there now, almost all reminders of former Jewish life relate to World War II,” said Bart Wallet, professor of Jewish Studies at the UvA. “It’s very good that this is happening, but the story of Jewish life in these neighborhoods is not being told at all.”
The city of Amsterdam now wants to change that, together with the UvA and the Jewish Cultural Quarter. Together with his master’s students and under the guidance of postdoc Julia van der Krieke, Wallet wants to “tell the story of the Jewish neighborhoods in a new, fresh way.”
How can you make the everyday life of the Jewish population in Vlooienburg and Uilenburg more palpable?
“For example, we want to reconstruct a kind of traditional hut called a sukkah for a week in the streetscape. During the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (commemorating the journey of the Israelites to the Promised Land, who slept in such huts, ed.) there were all these little huts in the Jewish neighborhood, where people ate and talked together. With a kind of pop-up hut, we want to make this story accessible to all Amsterdam residents, and especially to local residents.”
“We also want to organize an event around the centennial of the former bathhouse on Uilenburg. That will be about how the city government gradually became more attentive to poverty and hygiene in the city. After all, people at that time did not have washing facilities at home. But we are also working on projects that will run a little longer, like a podcast featuring local residents, and a gaming app.”
What kind of gaming app are you thinking of?
“One aimed at a somewhat younger audience. It should be a playful way to learn the history of the neighborhoods. The idea is that you go into the neighborhoods and look for all kinds of things on the façades. You earn points for that, giving the app an element of competition.”
Is there much to see on the façades of the former Vlooienburg and Uilenburg? There are now mostly post-World War II buildings there.
“Indeed, a lot of things have disappeared. If you take Vlooienburg, it has been largely flattened and the Stopera was put on top of it. So there, it will mainly be about telling what is buried underneath. But there are still some houses left, and the Moses and Aaron Church are still there, which had a special place in the Jewish neighborhood. And of course, the Waterlooplein market, which also has a rich Jewish history.”
“On Uilenburg there are a few more places that still date from the 17th or 18th centuries. There is also a diamond factory from the end of the 19th century, and some early 20th-century buildings, some of which still bear Jewish plaques.”
You also recently took the research team on a tour of alleyways of Jewish neighborhoods. What was the goal?
“To get a feel for the subject and ultimately bring the history of the alleys into the limelight. Alleyways are a typical phenomenon of urban Amsterdam. They tell an important story about the urban population. Many poverty-stricken Jewish families lived in those kinds of alleys, and sometimes in basement dwellings.”
Do you notice a lot of demand from the Jewish population to hear more about this history, rather than just references to the horrific wartime past?
“Definitely. We saw that when presenting this project in the Uilenburg synagogue. It was nice to see that many local residents, as well as people from the Jewish community, came to the presentation. But rabbis also came, saying, “We love this. Of course, we are visible on May 4 and 5, but this is also a way for us to tell the story of Jewish life in Amsterdam. We see that this project is going to do that.”
Do you also plan to involve the current Jewish population in Amsterdam in the telling of this history?
“We basically want to involve two groups. On the one hand, the current residents of the Waterlooplein neighborhood (formerly Vlooienburg) and Uilenburg. On the other hand, the descendants of the people who used to live there. The latter group now lives mostly in Amsterdam-Zuid, Buitenveldert, and Amstelveen. So the stories of the people who once lived in Vlooienburg and Uilenburg actually live on in other neighborhoods. We want to reconnect them.”
What else could such a project lead to?
“This is a pilot project. Our hope is that together with our partners we can roll this out to other parts of Amsterdam, for example, adjacent areas such as the Plantage neighborhood. We are also already holding talks with Amsterdam-Oost to see if we can start setting up something similar there.”
“Within the department, we would like to put more effort into these kinds of collaborative projects with the city. After all, we are a city university. Our roots are in Amsterdam.”
