The Amsterdam Canal was our pathway to finish our voyage, while the Rhine River continued to flow out to sea at Europe’s major seaport, Rotterdam. The canal is not a scenic ride like the Rhine Gorge. It is a working waterway with factories, warehouses, and equipment lining the shore.
Enjoying my favorite meal of the day, breakfast, I stared out the window hoping that my suitcase was magically being packed. However, that was not the case and we returned to the room to complete the worst task of a vacation – backing your bags to return home.
I have walked the streets, explored the alleys, and ridden the canals but always on my own. Today my exploration will be with a tour guide, and I hope to learn or discover more things about this city that I love. The Jordaan District is where I have always joked that I want to live and explore Europe from upon my retirement, and when the ship offered a walking tour of this neighborhood I was pumped. Unfortunately, the snow had turned into a very cold rain, and the walk was not looking like a viable option.
After a quick scan of the options available most of the gang opted for the canal cruise since the boats are covered and heated. It is also a great way to see the city.
I think in the end the Jordaan walking tour ended up being cancelled due to lack of participation. However, Janet and I had decided to change it up and take the Jewish Heritage tour. We had no expectations and not a clue what we signed up for, but hey we won’t get wet…
Well, there ended up being four total people on the tour, and two of the four were us. A bus for 50 pulled up and the four us piled in with not one, but two tour guides – A party of 6! I guess the canal boat was the choice of the day for the other 134 passengers. As we transited through Amsterdam on a bus, which is no easy task in a vehicle that size, we chatted with our guides explaining we thought the Jordaan would be miserable walking in this weather. The guide smiled and said, “oh we will walk more on this tour than the Jordaan tour”. Immediately my mind began racing, “Oh No – this will be awful!” We stepped off the bus and the sky cleared and we began what would be an amazing afternoon. Using the catch phrase of the week, “We chose wisely”!
Off Ramp - The history of the Netherlands clearly shows that Dutch people have been tolerant of outsiders and a place where people could settle without being persecuted. As many people do when they emigrate, the Jewish Quarter (Jodenbuurt) of Amsterdam became the gathering place for Jewish families from near and far. The Spanish Inquisition was the major trigger for the Jews to flee the Iberian Peninsula in search of a new home. The Dutch Protestants allowed these newcomers to practice their religion (as long as you did not flaunt it) so Catholics and Jews lived among the ruling Protestants for the most part in peace. The city continued to flourish. Amsterdam was a very wealthy city and let us not forget the home of capitalism.
The tour was focused on Judaism: its’ culture, history, and religious traditions. The nightmare years of the Holocaust was not a tour topic. However, the topic is so powerful it was not to escape our day. The first stop was the Portuguese Synagogue (Esnoga), which was built in the 1670s by Sephardic Jews (Spain/Portuguese Origins).
They became the bankers and diamond merchants and were some of the wealthiest people in Amsterdam. Yet they built a very simple, but extremely large, Synagogue that has the feel of a Protestant Church. The Esnoga campus also houses one the oldest and largest libraries (Ets Haim) of ancient documents of the Hebrew religion. The Synagogue is still very active, and in fact we could only stay for a short visit because it was Friday and the Sabbath would begin shortly.
Our journey through the past took us through a small quiet green space named Wertheim Park. The sun had come out, yet there was still a slight bite in the air. Tucked away in the corner of the park, we approached what appeared to be a big window laying on the ground. The monument, known as the Mirror Memorial or Auschwitz Memorial, has glass panels which reflect the sky above and a vertical panel which has been etched with the words Nooit Meer Auschwitz (Never Again Auschwitz).
The glass panels on the ground are shattered. The panels were not shattered when placed there, but one broke because of condensation/workmanship and then a few days later more were damaged by vandalism. The artist, Jan Wolkers, who created this work was adamant the panels remain shattered. Below the panels is an urn which contains ashes of some who perished in Auschwitz. Wolkers explained his work by saying, “heaven is no longer unbroken since Auschwitz”. The closing lines on a nearby plaque of this powerful memorial states:
This monument is erected in commemoration of the hundreds of thousands,
the millions of victims of racial delusions.
This is a place of remembrance and grief, of guilt and repentance,
a warning for all generations throughout the world.
95,000 Jews from the Netherlands went to Auschwitz and when the camp was liberated by the Russians in 1945 there were only 500 alive.
As we continued to walk through the neighborhood, it felt like each step we took was on hallowed ground. Our next stop was Hollandsche Schouwburg, which was the central theater in the heart of the Jewish Quarter. Only the façade remains as the building was partially destroyed after the WWII by people trying to wash away the memories of what occurred here. It was where all Jews in the city had to come to register in the early years of the war. It is from those lists, the trains to the concentration camps would be filled. The theater area is now an open atrium.
Our guide, which surprised all of us, was very critical of the removal of confederate memorials in the states. He thought the further we remove our past from our daily life, the greater the chance we will experience it again. (How about that for Thanksgiving dinner conversation)
What totally stopped me in my tracks was what we learned standing in front of Hollandsche Schouwburg. Across the street is a child care center, still in operation from the 1930s. The building on the left was a school of some sort for adults. The tram tracks between the two building in some cases determined life or death of many children of Amsterdam.
When the tram stopped to pick up passengers, it blocked the view of the Nazi Guards in front of Hollandsche Schouwburg. Jewish mothers would physically throw their children through the door and into the safety of the daycare. With no questions asked and acting quickly, the children would be smuggled into the adjoining building. From there it was out the back door, and hopefully they would find their way out of the Netherlands to safety. Most of these children were never reunited with their mothers.
Only because we were a small group and were very inquisitive of this period did our guide go into these stories. “People on cruises are here to have a good time and most do not want a heavy dose of reality of the past on their vacation”, he said.
Next stop was the Jewish Historical Museum. Along the way we passed the home of Rembrandt as well as a statue commentating the dock workers who went on strike so the Jews could not be loaded on the death trains. There is so much history packed into these few square blocks.
The museum is now housed in four former Ashkenazi Synagogues. The Ashkenazic Jews origins are linked to Germany along the Northern Rhine River and Eastern Europe. The word "Ashkenaz" in Hebrew refers to Germany. Ironically, these Jews were not as wealthy as their neighbors, the Sephardic Jews, at the Portuguese Synagogue yet their buildings and religious objects are much more ornamental and made from more expensive and durable materials.
The museum highlights Judaism from the past to present, and also has a children’s section. One of my favorite things was a painting, which was a takeoff on the Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s album cover which captures famous Jews.
The gang that headed out on the canal tour was now sending us WhatsApp messages about their current location. Their tour must have come to an end…
It had been a full day with so much ground covered physically and emotionally. We started heading to the rendezvous point to meet our bus. We did get to pass the one store everyone should visit in Amsterdam. Why of course, I am talking about the Rubber Duck store. In fact, there are two Rubber Duck stores in Amsterdam.
Hey, the city if full of canals, of course there should be a need for rubber ducks. It is also a quick way to find your bike.
We crossed canals and weaved our way through alleys I had never seen in previous visits. Cutting through buildings built in the 1700s that are now part of the University, we paused only to watch the sun disappear behind the clouds and soon the visible sky.
Finally, we entered into a courtyard surrounded by old buildings with a church in the middle. This is where the Beguines of Amsterdam have lived since the 1300s. A group of Catholic women who care for the old and sick lived here. The Beguines are not nuns, and can come ago as they please. They are free to do with the temporal assets as they like, but do live a semi-monastic life. These women do not marry, pledge chastity, and live a poverty lifestyle while a part of the community.
I was surprised we were here on the Jewish Heritage tour, when the guide explained since I asked earlier in the day about the hidden Catholic Churches he decided to bring us to see one.
It was dark by the time we returned to the ship and re-united with the gang. It would be our last dinner aboard and time to say farewell to the staff we had grown close to and befriended over the last week. Before dinner, I went to the watering hole and order a Martini.
Sipping slow, the day’s discoveries kept returning like a momentary flash being displayed on the windows of the ship.
The city I love so much had gone through so much in the last 500 years. I now had a better understanding of a religious group that before this point only had a cursory knowledge of their history, contributions, and suffering. Today had definitely been the tour of a lifetime and our guide made the past real.
Enjoying another fabulous meal, the gang swapped stories of the day. Listening to each person recount something they saw or heard and only re-enforced that...
Our night ended in our meeting place in the aft of the ship, the chef’s dining room. We finished off a few of the treasures we had procured along our trip and relived each day in stories. The fresh air of the day had taken a toll on Janet and my ability to make it a late night. We headed to the room knowing the end of this trip was near.
Wow, thanks for sharing this link, I had to choke back tears through parts of it, but I am glad to know the history and hope I can visit part of this when we go.,
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