Lotty's Bench : The Persecution of the Jews of Amsterdam Remembered

In Amsterdam alone there have been more than eighty monuments created that have something to do with the Holocaust. In addition, there are still many locations that tell parts of the story of the persecution of the Jews: Buildings, squares, and streets that were once silent witnesses to the darkest page in the citys history. The stories behind the monuments and locations come together In Lotty''s Bench. In 95 vignettes, it becomes clear how inextricably linked the city of Amsterdam still is with the history of the persecution of its Jews. 26 August 1945: Lotty Veffer arrived in Amsterdam. She was the only member of her family to have survived the war. Her parents and younger sister Carla had been gassed in Sobibor. There was no heartfelt welcome for her, and eventually she was forced to spend her first night back home in Amsterdam on a park bench on the Apollolaan. In September 2017, the then 96-year-old Lotty was honored with her own monument, a bench on the exact same spot where she had spent that first night. This is only one of the many locations in the city that continues to remind us of the persecution of the Jews. Lotty passed away on Friday 27 July 2018.