The Digital Monument to the Jewish Community in the Netherlands: a meaningful, ritual place for commemoration

Abstract

The Digital Monument to the Jewish Community in the Netherlands went online in 2005. This monument has been dedicated to preserve the memory of “all the men, women and children who were persecuted as Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and did not survive the Shoah”.

In 2010 the Jewish Monument Community was linked to this virtual monument, this website Community offers the possibility to contribute additional information about individual victims remembered in the Digital Monument. The results of this research show that in comparison with commemoration at a traditional material monument, in particular the individual features of this new concept regarding commemoration are valued. Each individual victim may be commemorated and remembered in a very personal manner by telling who the victim was, and how he or she lived on the eve of deportation.

The conclusion is that cyberspace may offer a significant and relevant place for, in this case, commemoration practices. Both Digital Monument and Community offer a meaningful place of commemoration of Dutch victims of the Shoah.

Keywords:

• Commemoration
• Memory
• Ritual
• Monument
• Shoah
• Web memorial

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the staff, in particular editor Anat Harel, from the Digital Monument to the Jewish Community in the Netherlands at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, for their kind assistance and support in this project.

Notes

[1] The description and details on the monument mentioned and discussed in this contribution are derived from: http://www.joodsmonument.nl, “Explanation”, accessed 22 May 2014. I will continue to speak of the “Digital Monument” when I refer to the Digital Monument to the Jewish Community in the Netherlands.

[2] http://www.communityjoodsmonument.nl, accessed 23 May 2014. Hereafter I will speak of the “Community” when I refer to the Jewish Monument Community.

[3] This contribution presents the results of the research on one of the case study monuments in the PhD research project of the author. This PhD project has as central focus on postponed monuments in the Netherlands, their manifestation, context and meaning (Faro, 2015).

[4] The description and details on the monument mentioned and discussed in this chapter are derived from: http://www.joodsmonument.nl “Explanation”, accessed 23 June 2013. I will continue to speak of the “Digital Monument” when I refer to the Digital Monument to the Jewish Community in the Netherlands.

[5] http://www.joodsmonument.nl/, accessed 25 May 2014.

[6] http://www.joodsmonument.nl/page/274281, tab “Explanation”, accessed 26 June 2013.

[7] Due to privacy regulations data on survivors are excluded from appearance on the Digital Monument and Community, http://www.joodsmonument.nl/page/552712#9, accessed 23 July 2013.

[8] http://www.joodsmonument.nl/page/274285, tab “Explanation”, accessed 22 May 2014.

[9] http://www.joodsmonument.nl/page/274281, tab “Explanation”, accessed 22 May 2014.

[10] http://www.joodsmonument.nl/page/405673, tab “Explanation”, accessed 25 June 2013.

[11] Personal communication Ino Paap, Mediamatic, February 2013.

[12] CJO is an organization with the objective “to protect and promote the interests of the Jewish community with government and society”: http://www.cjo.nl/, accessed 20 July 2013.

[13] “Foundation for the Digital Monument to the Jewish Community in the Netherlands”: http://www.joodsmonument.nl/page/405673, tab “Explanation”, accessed 25 June 2013.

[14] http://www.joodsmonument.nl/page/405673, tab “Explanation”, accessed 25 June 2013.

[15] Personal communication, A. Harel, Jewish Historical Museum, 19 July 2013.

[16] http://www.joodsmonument.nl/page/550562, accessed 22 July 2013.

[17] http://www.communityjoodsmonument.nl/page/98/nl?lang=eng, accessed 26 June 2013.

[18] http://www.communityjoodsmonument.nl/person/244089/nl, accessed 8 September 2014.

[19] For instance the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall – The Virtual Wall, http://www.virtualwall.org, accessed November 8, 2013, A so-called “library” of physical and online war memorials, honouring all who died in all wars since 1945 may be found at http://www.war-memorial.net/index.asp, accessed 3 November 2013.

[20] For instance virtual memorials raised after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001, these memorials have all been “archived” on 11 September Digital Archive, http://911digitalarchive.org/about/index.php, accessed 7 November 2013.

[21] Personal communication Anat Harel, editor Community Jewish Historical Museum, 19 July 2013.

[22] James Young defines a monument as a “subset of memorials: the material objects, sculptures, and installations, used to memorialize a person or a thing”. All memory sites are considered as “memorials”, while the “plastic objects” within these sites are monuments. To be more specific: a memorial may be a day, a conference or a space, but it does not have to be a monument. On the other hand, a monument is always a kind of memorial, according to Young (1993, pp. 3–4).

[23] http://www.virtual-memorials.com, accessed 9 November 2013.

[24] http://www.virtual-memorials.com/main.php?action=about, accessed 9 November 2013.

[25] Oxford Dictionaries, accessed on line: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com, accessed 4 June 2013.

[26] http://www.communityjoodsmonument.nl, accessed 26 June 2013.