Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Architect: Studio Libeskind.

A memorial dedicated to the over 102,000 Dutch victims of the Holocaust will finally be unveiled more than 75 years after World War II. The memorial contains the names of all Dutch Holocaust victims without a grave, including Jews, Sinti, and Roma who were persecuted and deported from the Netherlands, and Dutch Jews who were deported from other countries. The Netherlands will at last acquire a tangible memorial where 102,000 Jews and 220 Sinti and Roma can be remembered, both individually and collectively. This is the first memorial in the Netherlands that lists each individual victim of the Holocaust by name. The Weesperstraat site is located close to Jonas Daniël Meijerplein in the eastern centre of Amsterdam, on the edge of the Plantage and Weesper district. The memorial comprises four Hebrew characters that spell the word that translates as ‘In Memory Of’. As visitors enter the memorial they encounter a labyrinth of passages articulated on both sides by two-metre-high brick walls carrying the message of remembrance. 102,000 bricks will each be inscribed with a name, date of birth and age at death, in such a way that the victims’ names can be touched. The walls bearing the names support four volumes crafted in mirror-finished stainless steel.

Photo credit: Kees Hummel.