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Amsterdam Ditches Libeskind Holocaust Memorial Plans
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Popular efforts among Amsterdam residents to stop the construction of a Holocaust memorial designed by starchitect Daniel Libeskind have succeeded, the AFP reports. The €5 million ($6.8 million) structure was sent back to the design phase by a district council on Tuesday. Residents had complained about the loss of a park in order to accommodate the memorial.
They claim that the council did not sufficiently consult them before commissioning. According to some residents, neither Libeskind’s vision nor the spirit of the project is a problem: “We’re not opposed to the idea of building a monument, it’s a good idea in itself, but it makes no sense building it here. The park’s just too small,” Marja Ham to the AFP.
Less nuanced in her estimation of plans for the memorial was Karina Wolkers, the widow of late artist Jan Wolkers who created an Auschwitz memorial in the park in 1993. “This is an idiotic idea that completely denatures my husband’s work,” she told the news agency, continuing that she was prepared to initiate legal action against the current plans were they to go forward.
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