Thursday, July 7, 2016

About This Trip

I abandoned my standard naming scheme, partly because it is hard to come up them sometimes and partly because this indicated more of an informative tone than one about my adventure. So for the about me part and the explanation of what a Magellan Project is in the first place, I would like to refer you to two previous posts under my Malta Magellan Project label. Even though I like to think I did a good job in explaining what a Magellan Project is in the past, that tells you little about why I undertook this specific one to Amsterdam. In the simplest terms, my Magellan Project was to visit areas of Jewish Heritage in Amsterdam, understand the difficulties the Jews and the average Dutchman faced under Nazi occupation, and to see firsthand both the contributions the Jews had made to the city of Amsterdam and see the Dutch "freedom of conscious" which allowed all faiths to practice freely long before any other European nation albeit quietly.

If that was not long enough of a history lesson or reason to satisfy you, here is also an excerpt from my original proposal to visit Amsterdam referring to World War II and the Holocaust :

Unsurprisingly, Jews with the means to leave Germany left as swiftly as they could to any country that would take them. The Netherlands, again, showed its sympathy and willingness to help the persecuted Jews from Germany and Austria and took in between 25,000 to 34,000 Jewish refugees. At this time, the Jewish population of the Netherlands represented two percent of The Netherland’s total population, even before they took in the refugees. Unfortunately, Hitler’s hatred of the Jews compared only with Hitler’s thirst for conquest and by 1941, the Netherlands had fallen under Nazi occupation.
            Even under occupation, the Dutch showed remarkable compassion towards its fellow Jewish citizens. Despite the difficulty to hide Jews in the most densely populated country in Europe, many heroic Dutch took it upon themselves to attempt to hide their Jewish neighbors wherever they could. The most famous case of which is the diarist Anne Frank hiding in the attic of a Dutch family alongside her sister Margot. The Dutch were also the first in all of Nazi-occupied Europe to directly rebel against the inhuman treatment of their Jews in the February Strike. This showed that even the Dutch non-Jews understood the plight that the Jews of the Netherlands were facing.
During this time, most Jews were living in Amsterdam which is why this is the destination that my project will focus on. My project is to chronicle, visit, and reflect on the religious tolerance the Dutch have willingly granted to the persecuted Jews of Europe as well as Dutch resistance to the Nazi’s savage attempts to slaughter the Jews within the Netherlands. My travels will include the Anne Frank House, as well as different Jewish museums and those that relay the history of the Dutch resistance to Nazi rule. I also plan to attend a service in one of the Netherland’s many synagogues. The beauty of the Netherlands lies in its explicit desire to be accepting to all religious creeds. In the 1900s Netherlands was referred to as the “Jerusalem of the West” by its Jews, and to this day, the Netherlands remains a destination that is welcoming and accepting of its Jewish population."
If you have any questions please let me know, but in this goal I feel that I have succeeded in seeing all I wished to see. To see the everyday plight under occupation, I went to the Verzetsmuseum, to see Jewish heritage in Amsterdam, I went to the Portuguese Synagogue, the Jewish Historical Center, and the Diamond Museum, and finally to see the most popularized example of a neighbor attempting to save a Jewish neighbor, I went to the Anne Frank House. All in all, my goals were set and they were accomplished.

Exploring the Annex and Exploring the Seas

In yet another strange mashup of events in our daily outings, we chose to see one of the most popular tourist traps in all of Amsterdam, the Anne Frank House, and the National Maritime Museum. We went to the maritime museum first, knowing how long and miserable the line to the Anne Frank House would be. In a strange building with a glass roofed courtyard, the Maritime Museum had different sections pertaining to the Dutch history of the slave trade and the Dutch West and East India Companies, a whole section just on whaling, a collection of historical navigational instruments, a collection of art with themes on the sea or Dutch sailing, and finally an outside area with a replica Dutch trading ship and an authentic Royal barge. It was all very interesting, but there is not a whole lot I can personally add to the experience.

Then we set off for our pilgrimage to Amsterdam's tourist nightmare of the Anne Frank House's line. For some reason, despite warm temperatures earlier in the day (and every day before and after that exact period of time) the weather was horrible. It was in the mid-50s, gusting winds in every direction that refused to cease, and with periodic cold, drizzling rain accenting the lovely experience of waiting in the cold for hours. I am not proud of myself, but I strongly considered giving up. Luckily the resolve of my friend and the foresight to know I would feel the pangs of regret if I did not visit the epitome of what I had gone to Amsterdam to research allowed me to steel my resolve and kept me standing in that line for the remaining three hours. Of course, no pictures were allowed which was understandable yet annoying. So in its stead I have pictures of the outside of the building and of the statue of Anne Frank that they have outside of their photophobic venue. Everyone pretty much knows the story of Anne Frank and her family's unsuccessful attempt to flee Germany, and then their unsuccessful attempt to hide in a hidden annex in the densely populated city of Amsterdam, so I will not delve into much more than that.

 However, I feel that more so than the artifacts they presented, the story of the young girl they tried to present as both a saint while reminding everyone how much she "was not a saint" and merely one of millions of victims, the most emotionally gripping thing was at the end of the museum. At the end, one of the last things they show you is a screen with a projector showing you they final thoughts and quotes written in the guestbook from famous actors, directors, and regular people. The final thoughts by Jewish actress Natalie Portman, and Jewish director Steven Spielberg were especially gripping knowing that they undoubtedly have a deeper knowledge and sense of loss when viewing the history of the Holocaust. Even strangers and tourists they simply interviewed and put in the video had such strong convictions in never allowing such a heinous act like the Nazi persecution happen, it really helped to personally give me faith that despite the evidence of growing antisemitism, good people will not be as silent and compliant as they had in years past. As a Jew and history student, hearing those words from average people means the world to me - and of all the things in the Anne Frank House, that is what stood out most to me.

First the pictures from the Maritime Museum, also called the Het Scheepvaartmuseum (quite a mouthful, right?)


Thursday, June 30, 2016

Dominant City and Dominant Towers

Now the seemingly strange title of this post has to do with the main attraction of this city. For the final installment of the day trips we took to escape Amsterdam we went to the beautiful city of Utrecht. Utrecht was originally a commanding, Catholic bastion of power in the Spanish Netherlands.

The city's main attraction was the Dom Church and the Dom Tower. They were originally connected by a large nave, but after a powerful storm that became a tornado in 1674, it was completely destroyed. The rubble remained where it was for two hundred years, unable to fund a restoration of a grand Catholic church after the Protestant Reformation and unable to clear the debris. Eventually, the turned the area between the Dom Tower and the remainder of the church into a square, uncreatively called Dom Square. The town is very possibly the oldest settlement in the Netherlands, under the foundations of the Dom Church, also called Domkerk, they found remnants of a Roman fortress, a missionary's church, all built atop one another's ruins. The history of the land beneath the Domkerk was uniquely explored in yet another Dom-named museum named Dom Under. We were shown the archeological dig site beneath the church while being told the history of the city and of the land we stand on. We were given lanterns that were outfitted with an audio tour that used light-activated access points.

While waiting for our tour of the Dom Tower to begin, we entered an did a self-guided tour in the Dom Church. Despite asking for donations, which we were glad to offer, the tour was completely free and I even lit a candle in mourning in one of the oldest, most incredible churches in the Netherlands. We went through the church pretty quickly, but it was interesting to learn that Mozart had once played the Domkerk organ. Finally we left to begin our tour of the Dom Tower. The views were amazing, the height was immense for such an old construction, and the 465 stairs I was forced to climb was probably the most exercise I have had in my lifetime.

But before I show all the pictures I took of the many Dom-themed attractions, I would like to show you the photos of this gorgeous monument to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust I happened to find in front of Utrecht's train museum. It was, what I think was, a granite wall with the names of the victims engraved along with a stature of a shofar, which is a rams horn which is very important in the Jewish religion especially near high holidays.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Safe Houses and a Safe Haarlem

Part two of my three part series on the little daytrips my colleague and I took to escape the crowds of Amsterdam took part in Haarlem. Amazingly different from our Harlem, which steals this gorgeous city's name, we spent an entire day without incident. Try doing the same thing walking around our Harlem for hours on end as a tourist, I am sure that the experience would be much different.

 So moving on without our mugging, shooting, gang-affiliated visit to the Dutch Haarlem, we visited quite a few sites. My favorite would have to be the De Adriaan Windmill. After all these years, they still use it to mill grain on special occasions and have professional, college-educated millers on staff. Luckily, we also enjoyed the presence of a worldly, humorous, and spontaneous tour guide who managed to educate, engage, amuse, and insult the members of the six person tour group. That combination led to a consistently positive experience in which everyone there was ear to ear grinning. In her questions to the group, I was able to get two answers right from a silent group, one of my correct answers was especially lauded. She said to me that in her decades of doing this, I was only the second or third to give the right answer. So obviously I was flattered. The windmill tour itself was interesting, sure, but without our particular guide I fear that it would not have been the memorable, incredible experience that it was.

First View from out of the train station.
Here are the photos from the De Adriaan Windmill.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Gouda Glass and Gouda Cheese

I am sure you can tell by the title that this post has to do with the town of Gouda. It was one of the three little day trips we took from Amsterdam to visit the surrounding gems of the Netherlands. Other than the famous cheese that they share their town's name with, I knew very little about the city before I arrived. It was just a coincidence that I had learned that my favorite Dutch treat, the stroopwafel, originated in a Gouda bakery. The treat itself, two thin wafer-like pancakes with either caramel, syrup, or honey smashed between them is perhaps my favorite Dutch food- and yes, I found and bought some at Giant Eagle since I have been home.

Besides being home to the greatest Dutch dessert, Gouda is also home to a windmill, and the beautiful Sint Janskerk Church. It is truly beautiful, and its gothic style makes it stand out as the prize of the city. The church can boast being a UNESCO recognized Dutch monument, and the main attraction of the church is its twenty-plus stained glass windows that date all the way back to the late 16th century all the way to 1947. Most are of religious scenes, being its a church and all, but the stained glass window from 1947 was to commemorate the liberation of the Netherlands from Nazi occupation. Along with the liberation window, other monuments that deal with my personal project were found alongside Gouda's town hall (I took a picture of it, but it may be too blurry to distinguish) that recognized those persecuted and deported from their town. They also had many more of the sidewalk plagues that indicated a Jewish or other persecuted family was removed from the homes nearby. I was told to look out for these by another W&J student who visited Amsterdam the year prior, but I was surprised I found so many in Gouda compared to those I passed by in Amsterdam.

Before we left, I had to stop at the cheese store. It would be a sin to visit the town of Gouda and not leave with a wheel of gouda for the family, right? So with stroopwafels and gouda cheese in hand, we said goodbye to the quaint little town that was free of the agonizing crowds of Amsterdam, unfortunately it was also free of work on the day we went too. We learned pretty quickly that Monday was the equivalent to our Sunday. Amazingly, despite half the attractions and museums we wanted to go to shuttered, we still managed to have a great time there.

Now some pictures!

These are some different pictures of Gouda's Town Hall also called Stadhuis Gouda.


Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Seeing Struggles and Seeing Rembrandts

So, at this point I am playing quite a bit of catch up. Unlike my trip prior where I was able to find time to write about each day the day after, this trip has been a lot more hectic with a lot more pictures. In one museum, the Rijksmuseum, which this post is half about, I took more pictures there than in my entire previous trip. I am a little ashamed about it to be honest. I hate to think I spent more time snapping photos than enjoying being there, but I suppose this time I wanted to have an entirely captured experience. Plus, I definitely did MUCH more here in the Netherlands than I did in Malta. In fact, I have been in more churches in this country, one of the most liberal havens of drug use and inclusion, than I had been in Malta, a catholic bastion of EU conservatism.

Anyhow, first we went to the Verzetsmuseum, which translates to resistance museum and chronicles the difficult decisions the Dutch were forced to make under Nazi occupation. After a "heroic" five day battle with Dutch forces, the Germans came against more resistance than they expected and responded by leveling the civilian city center of Rotterdam (Nazis, war crimes, surprising right?). Well, their capitulation came very quickly after their city had been razed to the ground from the skies and from 1940 to the end of the war, they were under occupation. The highlighted motif of the struggles was summed up in the question of  "adapt? cooperate? or resist?" The museum also had a great collection of artifacts from the Nazi occupation including lots of propaganda posters for both the Dutch Nazi Party and their liberal archenemies. They also had a great audio tour as well as a few interactive portions, one that I enjoyed was being given a magnifying glass and being told to spot the forged IDs and ration cards from the genuine ones. It was a depressing part of their history, one most would probably like to forget, and I can honestly say that I respect their candor in admitting their involvement. Most countries, like Poland for example, claim truthfully or not, that they had nothing to do with any of the Nazi atrocities and that none of their countryman participated without a gun to their head or family held hostage. That must be patently false, because how could an occupying force maintain order without any local administration? Meanwhile, the Dutch honestly admitted to having a Dutch Nazi Party well before the war, and while their long history of public welfare prevented the same social unrest that occurred elsewhere, they admit to worsening conditions that led to their own political turmoil. Side by side they told the stories of those that held Jews in their attics and those that joined the Nazi party for personal gain, the stories of the resistance that smuggled guns and forged ration cards so that the hidden Jews could be fed and the stories of those that turned in their own neighbors out of jealousy. The entire museum was well-presented and honest to the turmoil and personal dilemmas that occurred under their unfortunate reality.

Here's the pictures I took from the Verzetsmuseum,



Sunday, June 5, 2016

Tropic Museum and Tropic Animals

In a strange combination of activities, we decided to go to the Tropenmuseum which is essentially the Dutch attempt in recognizing and apologizing for all of its, not so wonderful, imperialism that conquered and enslaved much of Africa and the East Indies, as well as the Artis Royal Zoo. Funny enough, it also housed things appropriated from other continents and held against their will.

All joking aside, the Tropenmuseum which simply translates to tropics museum was pretty interesting. It housed quite a bit of relics that showed their formerly vast, incredibly abuse empire including weapons from the period as well as stolen treasures from the people they enslaved. In fact, the whole museum, with the exception of a small exhibit that showed the brutality of Japanese occupation in Indonesia during WWII, just seemed to beg for an apology for what it had done in the past. As a student of history, I appreciated the painful admission of guilt they had displayed so proudly, yet I could not seem to fully enjoy the exhibits. I do not know why, but I feel that the strange combination of repentance while still grinningly displaying your former power over helpless indigenous peoples is just off-putting in a broad way.  

In the more cheery part of the day, the Artis Royal Zoo was incredibly beautiful. Every inch of the park was replete with close, engaging animal enclosures, fountains, and well manicured parks. Of course, many of the animals they housed our own Pittsburgh Zoo had as well, but somehow, in a quarter of the space they were able to fit twice as many animals. Penguins, elephants, and giraffes were displayed alongside more exotic animals I had never seen before in person including tapirs, red pandas, and anteaters. It was simply a delight and I am a little embarrassed to admit that I took exactly 280 pictures at that zoo. In fact, I saw a penguin yawn and I stood there for over ten minutes waiting for it to yawn again to take a photo. In case you wonder later, that is why there is about five pictures of the same penguin due to me missing his yawn and trying again. One other fun anecdote from the zoo, the second enclosure we saw after the water buffalo was a group of tapirs, anteaters, capybaras, and patagonian maras. You will see in my pictures how close a tapir got to me and I was enjoying how close and friendly the animals appeared to be, and I was impressed with how close the visitors were to the animals. Well, maybe I should not have been too glad about that part owing to the fact that, again, second group of animals in, my new tapir buddy turned around and aggressively shot out a liquid (that I pray is urine) out of its backside and, despite a quick sidestep, ended up all over my right pant leg. So yea, I got literally pissed on by an exotic animal. Is that a Hallmark moment? In any case, it definitely made the trip more memorable. I took pictures of most of the animals I saw, like a total tourist I should add, so my pictures will paint quite the picture of my experience. Also, I just wanted to add this little tidbit, guess what the most popular exhibit looked to be, of all things, more people hung around the enclosure of North American animals than any other. Dozens of people stood in awe of the rodents we try to kill or shoo from our backyards including our fantastic little bandit, the racoon and our, never welcome, skunk. Funny that there most popular part of the zoo is two little pests that most people in Pennsylvania can see in their backyards or as roadkill. Hey, I guess American animals are interesting to people that have never been to America, makes you wonder if people from Africa become bored of big cats. The Artis Royal Zoo was very enjoyable and I am very grateful that I strayed enough to enjoy something I probably would have otherwise missed and I am also grateful that every single aspect of that zoo strived to be beautiful, just wait until you see the entrance, even that was a work of art.

First, here are the few photos I took at the Dutch "We're sorry we were awful and killed hundreds of thousands of your people museum" - which they euphemize as the Tropenmuseum.

Statue outside of Tropenmuseum

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Jewish Synagogues and Jewish History

Yesterday we went to one of my highest priority attractions in Amsterdam. This location, which was very dear to my heart, was the Jewish Historical Center.The museum included information about when the Jews first starting migrating to Amsterdam, their activities and the synagogues they built here, the role in society and the trades they practiced here, their struggles during the Nazi occupation, all the way to the Jew's weary return to Amsterdam post-WWII. The information was extremely well organized and almost every turn included yet another piece of the accompanying audio guide that greatly expanded on the artifacts they had and the history behind each paining, each document, and each siddur they possessed. In fact, I took so many photos of the place, i.e. I do not think there is a singular corner of the museum that I was not able to capture (with the exception of this smaller Amy Winehouse exhibit, in which I was forbidden to take photos). I will include most of them, I was going to caption them, but there is just so many. In fact, if you want to know what anything is specifically that does not have the information about it in the next picture, just contact me or leave a comment. Well, here they are.




Saturday, May 28, 2016

Holy Places and Holy Things

Recently, I went to the Museum Ons'Lieve Heer Op Solder, (which in a more pleasant, pronounceable name is called the Lord of Our Attic Museum). The Lord of Our Attic Museum was initially very interesting and only got more interesting as you explored the 17th century canal house that had hidden a fantastic Catholic Church in its attic. Outside of purely religious objects and the church itself, the museum offered a glimpse into the everyday life of the 17th century Dutch. The house had in fact been three houses that were all purchased and combined by one wealthy man who sought to create a place of worship in the predominantly protestant Dutch Republic. From its grand entrance, to its winding staircases, to the surprisingly ornate altar, the house was full of fascinating religious objects that seemed out of place with what was otherwise a simple, yet large canal house. In short, the Lord of Our Attic Museum showcased the tolerance of the Dutch Republic even in the 1600s. The church was known about, and yet it was allowed to exist. The only caveat to any practicing religion in the Netherlands was that if they were adherents to any faith but Protestantism, they only had to be subtle enough to keep their places of worship from appearing as places of worship from the street. Tolerance was therefore granted to those who were willing to follow that simple, singular rule.

(photos from the Our Lord of the Attic)

A model of the three canal houses that were combined to make the
 church in the attic, as seen from the street

The Back of the same model 

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Missing Baggage and Missing Customer Service

Opposed to last time where the project was undertaken only by me, this time I stated my journey with a friend who would be completing his own research project in the Netherlands. The very first day of the beginning of our travels started off with a fun caveat. In order to get to our final location of Amsterdam, we had to take a flight to Philadelphia first. Well, day one, that did not happen. We arrived at the airport just before noon to ensure that we would be there well ahead of our 3:45pm departure. After sitting at the gate that was seemingly devoid of all other people for about three hours, we were alerted to our plane being cancelled by the word "cancelled" just appearing beneath our gate's departure information. As soon as we found out that the flight had been cancelled, we quickly went over to talk to the American Airlines personnel to ask about what we were supposed to do being that our flight had been suddenly cancelled. My friend was the first to call the number we were handed to talk to AA's customer service, he was essentially told an unconvincing "sorry" and that our flight had been cancelled due to maintenance. A story that neither of us believed being that our plane was already sitting at the gate, the same gate that was empty without the two of us. Therefore, our little hypothesis is that the flight was cancelled due to low occupancy, i.e. that would have been a private flight for two coach passengers. In any case, we were told there were no other flights to Philadelphia, and that we would have to come back tomorrow. Incredibly annoyed, we both called our parents to get picked up, unfortunately to start the obnoxious series of airport events anew tomorrow. Before we left however, we did do two things. Most importantly, we asked about our checked bags and were told not to worry about them, they will meet us in Amsterdam despite our growing distrust of American Airlines, and since we were waiting there anyways for our rides, I called American Airline's customer service myself to complain. My complaining got us promises of American Airlines vouchers for both of us, which after a second call to make sure they were coming on Tuesday morning, have still not been received.

Me in Dam Square