In August 1942 the German occupying forces took over de Hollandsche Schouwburg, a theater in Amsterdam, and turned it into a deportation center. Jews were forced to stay in the crammed building for days, sometimes weeks, and from there on would be deported first to Westerbork Camp, and then to concentration camps.

The Hollandsche Schouwburg lives on in Dutch collective memory as a site of terror, but also as a site of commemoration. On Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) and on 4th May, the Netherlands’ national day of commemoration, public ceremonies are held at the Schouwburg. Less known are the brave acts of Jewish resistance that took place in and around the Hollandsche Schouwburg, organized by Walter Süskind, Henriëtte Pimentel and other resistance fighters.