The Language House/Taalhuis has just moved to Amsterdam West, out of De Plantage. But they are still with us a little bit, because they organize a very interesting walk through the neighborhood, where you can practice your English or Dutch at the same time.

This is Mathilda “Tilly” Nelly de Vries. Tilly lived on the Plantage Kerklaan in the Amsterdam Jewish Quarter until she was arrested in March 1941 for membership of the Anti-Fascist Student Committee, a communist resistance group. A year and a half later, Tilly was murdered as a Jewish woman in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Tilly’s story is not unique. Of the approximately 140,000 Jews who lived in the Netherlands in 1940, more than 102,000 (75%) did not survive the horrors of the Holocaust. And WWII almost completely wiped out Jewish life in Amsterdam that began in the late 16th century. For 350 years, Jews were part of the Amsterdam population and left their physical and cultural traces here.

Onno Warns is a Jewish boy from Amsterdam who studied history in this city. And Tilly was his great-aunt.

During a walk of about an hour and a half, he takes you on a journey through time that begins with the arrival of the first Spanish and Portuguese Jews to the neighborhoods around the current Waterlooplein. We walk from the stately synagogues on Mr. Visserplein, via Uilenburg and Rapenburg, the Plantage and into the 20th century. Together we will search for the testimonies of the vibrant Jewish life and we will pause at the memorials in memory of those who did not return.
Jewish Quarter Walk in Amsterdam, Saturday April 12, 2025, Het Taalhuis, 30 euro, tickets here. The ticket price does not include entrance to the museum – you can buy your museum ticket here.
10:00 gather at the Jewish Museum
10:00 English walk / museum visit for level B1 and higher
11:30 Dutch walk (level B1 and higher) / museum visit (A levels)