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Monument to Jewish Resistance

Amstel 1

At the corner where the river Amstel meets Zwanenburgwal stands the Jewish resistance monument, made by Belgian sculptor Josef Glatt and placed there in 1988. A metre high black granite pillar incised with the stone tablets. On the side, the text of the prophet Jeremiah laments in Dutch and Hebrew: 'Were my eyes fountains of tears then would I weep day and night for the fallen fighters of my beloved people.'

The monument was an undertaking of the Comité Jewish Resistance Foundation 1940-1945, set up in 1986. When the monument was unveiled, Dick Dolman, then chair of the Dutch Second Chamber of parliament, stated:
   'Both in quality and quantity, the Jewish Resistance movement exceeded that of the non-Jews. About one thousand Jews worked in the Jewish Resistance and around 500 of them paid with their lives.' 

Each year a memorial is held here. It recalls the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht) 8 to 9 November 1938, when Jews were attacked throughout Germany. Almost every synagogue was set on fire and around 7,000 Jewish shops were broken into and looted, and Jewish property plastered with slogans and swastikas. This attack, organized by the Nazis, was the start sign for the meticulously-planned persecution and destruction of German Jews. .