Bring the pearls in The Hague together

While Hanneke Gelderblom was raised in a Jewish family, she doesn’t recall any form of religious practice at home. Her parents got married in the big Synagogue in the Wagenstraat, but that is about it. Both her grandfathers owned important businesses in The Hague, furniture store Loeb in the Jewish neighborhood and printing house Lankhout in a more residential area, the Noorderbeekstraat.

Mrs. Gelderblom has a very remarkable story. As a six year old girl, she went on a ‘trip’ with a woman her mother called ‘Aunt Zus’. This woman was Ru Pare, one of the people who were active in the resistance. She hid kids on many addresses, and kept moving them to ensure their safety. This is how Mrs. Gelderblom  and her brother (see picture) survived the war and were later reunited with their mother. Her father was killed when he tried to escape to England via France.
It took a long time before she got back in touch with Judaism. During her studies in Leiden, she became a part of a Zionist student association, but felt too restricted in this. She has never felt the strong connection with Israel that most Zionists experience, and felt judged for this. Liberation to her means that Jews can live anywhere in the world, not just in Israel. 

Years later, Mrs. Gelderblom was determined to stand up against discrimination and felt like this was what she needed to do. In Amsterdam, the ‘Anne Frank Foundation’  was formed, and she felt that The Hague needed a similar initiative. That is how the ‘Hague Initiative against Racism and Discrimination’ came into existence. In this process, she got in touch with Awraham Soetendorp, rabbi for the Liberal Jewish Community. She visited the synagogue sometimes and felt like she didn’t have to be part of a strict system here. This is how she became a member of this community in 1973 and is still a part of this today. 
Mrs. Gelderblom has been a part of the local government in The Hague for many years, and was involved in the planning for the Children’s Monument. She believes that it is a beautiful monument, but it should be made clearer what it is for. The ring around it has a relatively small text and could at least be three times bigger to function as a description of what the monument represents. However, she feels that the neighborhood might not agree with that. From our street interviews, people seem very appreciative of this particular monument, and we feel that some clarification would be welcomed by many residents. She further told us that the Rachel plaque - another monument that is placed on the wall that surrounds the New Church and is thus merely feet away from the Children’s monument – should be visually connected to the chairs, by means of markings in the pavement. Ideally, the Amalek monument should also be moved to this square to make a consistent whole and make people notice. 

Mrs. Gelderblom is very surprised with the fact that the Children’s monument is not a part of the list of monuments in The Hague. We feel that this is very strange and should definitely be changed. The Hague has so many monuments that it holds dear, then why is this not one of them? As we keep our research going, it seems more and more like The Hague doesn't recognize the importance of its Jewish history, since it does not proudly display its remains and memorials. As Mrs. Gelderblom beautifully phrased it: ‘The Hague has so many pearls, but it’s time to finally bring them together in a necklace.’

Further reading: 

http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/5009/Archief/archief/article/detail/2736966/1994/03/08/Hanneke-Lankhout-Verzetswerk-van-Tante-Zus-was-uniek.dhtml (Dutch)