From 24 June until 4 September 2005, the Jewish Historical Museum is presenting the summer exhibition Oh, Waterlooplein… The old Jewish quarter of Amsterdam. Paintings, drawings, photographs and film material give an impression of the changes that took place in the neighbourhood from c. 1860 to 1967. The artworks also reflect a development in the way in which various artists depicted what they saw. Most of the exhibits come from the collection of the Jewish Historical Museum itself, which is located at the heart of this old neighbourhood.
The former Jewish quarter of Amsterdam has served as a key
source of inspiration to many artists. Max Liebermann, Eduard
Frankfort, Johan Staller, Martin Monnickendam and others show life
as it was lived in the streets and alleyways. Their mode of
representation is largely dependent on the time in which they
lived. Those working in the mid-nineteenth century tended to adopt
a Romantic approach, while their early twentieth-century
counterparts presented a realistic picture of the
neighbourhood.
The drawings and paintings that Cor Hund (born in 1915) made of
the Jewish quarter and those who lived there have never been
exhibited before. With his bold style of drawing, shorn of
superfluous detail, he evoked a powerful sense of the atmosphere in
this part of Amsterdam.
Few pictures were made of the Jewish quarter during the Second
World War. The best-known images are snapshots recorded hurriedly
by anonymous photographers. After the war, photographers such as
Philip Mechanicus and Emmy Andriesse and the painter Cor Dik
recorded the cheerless picture presented by the semi-demolished
houses. While the demolition of the old houses had been started
decades before the war, the permanent loss of the families that had
once lived in them changed the old Jewish quarter forever. All that
remained was the Waterlooplein market - almost without Jewish
stall-holders. In 1967 the market ceased to do business at
Waterlooplein for many years, while a new complex was being built
that would house Amsterdam's town hall and music theatre. Ed van
der Elsken recorded that last day in his film Het
Waterlooplein verdwijnt (The end of
Waterlooplein).
During the exhibition, which is being held in the context of the
event Amsterdam, City on the Water, the JHM is
organizing a number of special events on and around the river
Amstel. There will be canal tours of the visible remains of the old
Jewish quarter and literary walking tours around Amsterdam's Jewish
quarter.