Dutch king opens memorial to Holocaust victims

Dutch King Willem-Alexander unveiled a new memorial in the heart of Amsterdam's historic Jewish Quarter on Sunday honoring the Dutch victims of the Holocaust.

Designed by Polish-Jewish architect Daniel Libeskind, the memorial is made up of walls shaped to form four Hebrew letters spelling out a word that translates as "In Memory Of".

The walls are built using bricks, each inscribed with the name, date of birth and age at death of the victims.

More than 102,000 Dutch Jews, Roma and Sinti were murdered in Nazi concentration camps during World War II or who died on their way to the camps.

Jacques Grishaver, chair of the Dutch Auschwitz Committee, officially opened the monument with the king in the presence of dignitaries and Holocaust survivors.

After walking through the gates, each picked up a white stone and placed it in front of a commemorative wall, a Jewish tradition when visiting graves.

Paul Stoppelman, who was visiting the memorial with his mother Ellen, said it was an emotional experience to find the names of their family members on the wall.

Dutch caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the monument also should force people to confront the question of whether the Netherlands did enough to protect Jews during the war and what he called "the cold reception for the small group who returned from hell after the war."

He said the monument served as an urgent reminder to be vigilant against antisemitism.

IMAGE: AP