27/09/2019
It's January 1943. Engaged couple Ralph P***k and Miep Krant are walking across Dam square in Amsterdam. The yellow stars they wear mark them out: Jews. Deportations to Camp Westerbork in the north-east of the country are by now in full swing. But this does not stop them from going out to spend time together. A street photographer takes this photograph.
Shortly afterwards, Miep is arrested during a roundup but before her departure to Westerbork Ralph cunningly manages to free her and she goes into hiding in another Dutch city, Baarn. Conditions are harsh and she very nearly dies of hunger. And of course, as a Jew in hiding, she cannot be taken to hospital. Ralph is deported from Amsterdam in the last transport on 29 September 1943 but jumps from the train and also goes underground. Both survive the war. They marry after the liberation.
These and other stories are part of an exhibition at the Nationaal Holocaust Museum until 6 October, 'The Persecution of the Jews in Photographs: The Netherlands, 1940–1945'. The pictures are from amateur (often taken in secret) as well as professional photographers of the time, some of which did not surface until years after the war. Showing the process from isolation to extermination, the photos are the visual testimonies of the tragedy that left deep marks on Dutch society.
Information on tickets can be found here: https://jck.nl/en/node/730
If you can't make it to the exhibition, you can view the images online via this link: https://jodenvervolginginfotos.nl/the-exhibition
After Amsterdam, the exhibition will travel to the Topographie des Terrors in Berlin.
Photo: Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam.
