National Holocaust Museum previewed before Amsterdam opening

The Netherlands new National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam is opening its doors to the public for the first time on Monday with an exhibition by Jeroen Krabbe, the museum announced in a press release. According to the museum, it is the first location in the Netherlands that presents a "complete overview of the history of the persecution and genocide of the Dutch Jews."

The first exhibition is titled The Demise of Abraham Reiss, by Dutch painter, producer and actor Jeroen Krabbe. The exhibition consists of nine paintings that tells the story of Krabbe's grandfather, Abraham Reiss and his experience during the Second World War. Krabbe based his works on photographs, letters, family stories as wella s books about the Holocaust.

The National Holocaust Museum is still being developed and will pass through various stages in the coming years, this exhibition signalling the start of the first phase. The first phase will consist of a range of exhibitions and events that will "acquaint visitors with the multitude of stories bout the Holocaust". The first stage will also focus on raising money for the final goal - a permanent National Holocaust Museum.

The Museum is opening in the reformed teaching training school on Plantage Middenlaan. Next door is the "Creche" where Jewish children were kept to await deportation to concentration camps during the Holocaust. Their parents were kept across the street in the Hollandsce Schouburg, known as the National Holocaust Memorial in English. Resistance groups and staff of the teaching training school managed to rescue 600 children before they were deported.

"The two locations together represent the story of the Holocaust: the National Holocaust Memorial is a place of deportation, collaboration and remembrance of the dead, the college is a place where authentic human courage and selflessness were reflected." the Museum writes.