Dutch synagogues filled with life 80 years after WWII – DW – 05/21/2025

DW

21-05-2025

Six million Jews perished in World War II. Dutch Jews were among the hardest hit. DW visited two synagogues in the Netherlands to see how they have been resurrected and filled with life 80 years after the war.
A few weeks ago, Europe celebrated the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the bloodiest war in European history. Twenty million died in the war, six million of them Jews.
Dutch Jews were among the hardest hit. Three quarters of the Netherlands' pre-war Jewish population perished in Auschwitz, Sobibor and other Nazi death camps.
Eighty years later, some of their shattered synagogues have been resurrected.
Amsterdam's first Jewish community
Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal were the first to establish themselves in Amsterdam in the early 17th century, settling on the eastern edge of the rapidly expanding city.
Many were merchants. Amsterdam's magnificent Portuguese synagogue is an enduring monument to their prosperity.
When the building was actively used as a synagogue, services were held on the top floor, with men praying in the main section and women on a balcony above Image: David Kattenburg
Soon after, poorer Ashkenazi Jews from across eastern Europe began settling nearby in Amsterdam's island districts of Uilenburg and Rapenburg. They eked out a living selling fish, clothing and domestic trinkets.
Housing and health conditions were abysmal, but faith and community ties were fierce.
Synagogues lined the streets. Of these, only the Uilenburger synagogue remains. Built in 1766 in the heart of the Jewish district on a lane that no longer exists, it now stands, hidden from sight, behind a brick wall.
The Uilenburger synagogue
"This is a beautiful old synagogue, and we try to keep the spirit of the past alive as much as possible and transform it also into a place where people want to come in the 21st century," Maurits Jan Vink, chair of the synagogue's foundation, told DW.
From the late 18th century to the 1940s, local Jews gathered in large numbers at the Uilenburger synagogue — up to 600 at a time, according to historical documents. Services were held on the top floor; men prayed in the main section, women on a balcony above.
On the bottom floor, chickens were slaughtered, poor people fed and weddings celebrated.
Pianist Imri Talgam performed works by composers Leo Smit and Menachem Asscher to a packed audience in the Uilenburger synagogue in April Image: David Kattenburg
"It would have been packed," says Vink. "But this whole area was packed. If you lived here, you lived with 10 people on 35 square meters, and the bathroom was outside."
A community ravaged
When the deportation of Dutch Jews began in February 1942, none were more vulnerable than the poor Jews of Uilenburg and Rapenburg.
"You needed money to go into hiding," says Vink. "They didn't have it. On average in the Netherlands, 75% of the Jewish population was killed; here it's 95%. So, almost nobody returned from this community."
Those who did return have helped restore the Uilenburger synagogue, turning it into a popular venue for Seder meals, local entrepreneurs, movie shoots, music recitals and Jewish weddings.
"People are always very curious, like what is it behind this wall?" says Waheeda Afriat, who helps organize events at the synagogue. "What I often hear is that this place is like a hidden gem."
Inside Europe: Little Synagogues in the Netherlands
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In April, music by two Dutch composers who never returned from the death camps was performed here by pianist Imri Talgam .
Menachem Asscher, a rabbi's son and a talented composer, pianist and cellist, was gassed in Auschwitz in July 1942. Leo Smit, who is compared by critics with Stravinsky, was gassed at Sobibor in April 1943.
Synagogue on a dike
In Sliedrecht, a town in the south of the country, another little synagogue hides in plain sight. On a sunny day in March, on the weekend of the Jewish holiday Purim, it opened its doors to visitors.
"We were just walking by and we noticed somebody by the door, and my girlfriend said, well let's take a look," a man named Henk told DW. "I've been living here in Sliedrecht for, I think, 56 years, and this is the first time I entered the building," he said.
From the outside, Sliedrecht's synagogue is hard to miss. According to its owners, it's the only one in the world built on a dike — a good place to be perched when the nearby Merwede river floods.
Sliedrecht's first Jewish families arrived around 1770. Back then, services were held in homes. In 1845, in partnership with the nearby village of Giessendam, a small synagogue was built on the dike, which constituted the boundary between the town and the village.
The end of religious services
But the community was small. By 1920, unable to muster the ten men required to hold services (a minyan), regular services ended, and the synagogue fell into disrepair. Nevertheless, Jewish events continued until 1942, when the deportations began.
Hunted down by local Nazis and collaborating Dutch police, Sliedrecht's Jews suffered terribly.
The synagogue in Sliedrecht is the only one in the world built on a dike Image: David Kattenburg
By 1945, the interior of the synagogue was in ruins. In the years that followed, it was used by a sack manufacturer, a green grocer and a carpenter.
A new lease of life
In 1989, during a dike reinforcement program, municipal authorities decided the derelict synagogue had to go. Local citizens were aghast and set up a foundation to buy and restore the building.
The wooden structure was dismantled into eleven segments and stored in a local warehouse. In 2003, it was reassembled, 80 meters west of its original position on the dike.
It was also handsomely refurbished using materials from another synagogue in the region, whose Jewish community had been wiped out.
Musical events and guided tours
Re-establishing religious services was, however, another matter.
Ronald Kitsz, chair of the Sliedrecht dike synagogue foundation, says that the objects in the synagogue's museum came from Jewish people whose ancestors lived in Sliedrecht Image: David Kattenburg
"When we started, we had a service once a month," says Ronald Kitsz, chair of the Sliedrecht dike synagogue foundation. "But a few families went to Amsterdam, a few families went to Israel, and then there were not enough Jewish people anymore."
In their absence, the foundation's members (none of them Jewish) began hosting open houses, musical events and guided tours of the synagogue's small museum, including a collection of sacred objects from Sliedrecht's old Jewish community.
"It's not just a menorah, or just a prayer book, siddur, or just a tallit," says Ronald Kitsz. "These objects came from Jewish people, whose ancestors lived in Sliedrecht. And that makes it beautiful because every object has its individual story, and we are proud of that."
Edited by: Aingeal Flanagan