“We must not forget what happened,” says Grishaver. “Soon we will have 102,000 names of people who died, have no grave and are never mentioned again. We are now getting those names back.” In addition to the names of the Holocaust victims, their date of birth and age are also lasered into the memorial stones.
The construction of the monument will cost nearly 15 million euros, twice as much as initially expected. The national government would initially contribute 2.3 million euros, but that is last year increased to 8.3 million euros. The municipality of Amsterdam, companies and private individuals also contribute.
For example, Jacqueline van Maarsen, Anne Frank’s childhood friend, donated 50,000 euros to the realization of the monument. That money came from the proceeds of a poem that Anne had written in 1942 in the poetry album of Jacqueline’s older sister Christiane van Maarsen. The handwritten poem was released in 2016 auctioned for 140,000 euros.
‘Fourteen years of struggle’
Initiator Grishaver, also chairman of the Dutch Auschwitz Committee, calls today’s stone laying a milestone. He has been working on the project since 2006. “It will come after fourteen years of struggle.”
In the course of those years, the plans for the Namen Monument have been changed with some regularly. Due to objections from local residents, the location, for example, moved from the Amsterdam Wertheim Park to the Weesperplantsoen, a little further away.
But there too the ideas turned out to meet with resistance. For example, according to local residents, the park offers too little space for large numbers of visitors and it would be too close to a thoroughfare.
The judge and later the Council of State gave the local residents wrong. Building preparations, such as it Cutting of trees, could therefore continue. In June hit the first pile and now there is also a first memorial stone.
According to initiator Grishaver, it will take another year before the Holocaust Namen monument is completely finished.
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