Antwerp to build Shoah monument naming city’s victims
Antwerp Mayor Patrick Janssens announced plans to build a
monument to commemorate the Belgian city's Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
"It is unacceptable that unlike other European
cities, the municipality of Antwerp has never erected a single monument in
memory of the history" of the Holocaust, Janssens said Wednesday at a City
Hall ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the first deportation of
Antwerp's Jews.
The city's only monument to the Holocaust was at the
initiative of the Forum of Jewish Organizations, which represents Flemish Jews,
Janssens said.
Speaking to about 100 people at the ceremony, Janssens
announced the plans to erect a monument and engrave into it the name of every
Antwerp Jew known to have been murdered in the Holocaust.
In addition, he said, the municipality will soon unveil a
memorial plaque at City Hall with the proposed text acknowledging the
complicity of Antwerp's municipal authorities in the deportation of the city's
Jews.
According to the proposed text, the transports were
"organized by the Nazis in close cooperation with the municipal
authorities [which were] in charge of the police. Dozens of policemen were
involved. Most cooperated obediently, some exercised violence. A few policemen
resisted, and sabotaged the Aug. 27 transport. Others tried to save Jews."
The text also says that more than 10,000 Jews from
Antwerp were deported, and that the police were involved in the detention of
more than 3,000. "Almost all of the deportees perished in
Auschwitz-Birkenau," it reads.
Eli Ringer, honorary chairman of the Forum of Jewish
Organizations, called the ceremony "impressive."
He added, "Complicity of local authorities was a
complex issue. On the one hand, there was widespread cooperation on the part of
Leo Delwaide, who was mayor then. On the other, we have testimonies that he
personally helped some Jews save themselves."
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