Memorial monument for Jewish Deaf victims of the nazi regime

The little deaf Ina Nanny Blits celebrated her 5th birthday in the gas chambers.

The old deaf Isaäc Nathans was 83 years old when he died in Westerbork. Maybe he was glad that he died.

The deaf couple Isaäc Arons and Metta de Jong celebrated their 25th year of marriage with their son and daughter in 1941. Two years later, after a terrible, frightening trip the family arrived in Sobibor, where the complete family died on the same day. Probably, the family was sent to gas chambers directly after arrival.

Sunday, October 17 at 14.00 hr. a monument will be unveiled in Amsterdam in memory of all the Jewish Deaf victims of the nazi regime. The unveiling will be done by Anna Vos-van Dam (the only Dutch deaf survivor of Auschwitz) together with Hedy d’Ancona (former politician).

As far as we know, this will be the only monument for Deaf Jews in the world that will be placed in public space.
The monument is situated in the same district as the Auschwitz monument, the Jewish Historical Museum, The 16th century Portuguese synagogue, the Hollandsche Schouwburg (which is the former theatre where all Jews were gathered by the nazis) and the Resistance Museum.

The monument will be placed near the former deaf school J.C. Ammanschool, from where deaf Jewish children and teachers were taken away by the nazis.

The memorial monument - an initiative of DeafShoah Foundation - is made by sculpturist Truus Menger, former Resistance and maker of several war monuments. Because of her age (87) this will be her last monument.

The monument will be adopted by the Royal Kentalis School Community Signis. Children of the school for the deaf will be present each year on the remembrance day. Lessons about the history and the fate of Deaf Jews in Dutch history will be organized by Deaf Shoah Foundation and the school.

The monument is realized by the generosity of sponsors and many individuals.

P.S. Do you have information about killed Jewish Deaf victims of the nazi regime, please contact DeafShoah Foundation, so we can ad this information, photo's, diaries, magazines, etcetera to our digital archive.

Do you want to support our educational work?  Please contact also:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

P.S.S. In 2011 a multi-user blog will be realized to build a public victim list of Deaf Jews. We ask the public to co-operate with us to fill in the missing information. In 2012 an English website will be realized.

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