Every year the municipality gives a prize for the best initiative in the field of transformation, renovation and restoration of heritage in the city: the Geurt Brinkgreve Bokaal.
Because a suitable new destination often ensures that heritage is preserved. The National Holocaust Museum received this award in December 2024.
National Holocaust Museum
The new and permanent National Holocaust Museum opened at Plantage Middenlaan (nos. 24, 27, 29) at the beginning of 2024. The client for the renovation for the repurposing was the Hollandsche Schouwburg Foundation, and the Amsterdam architectural firm Office Winhov was responsible for the design.
The museum is located in the former Plantage Preschool, a kind of kindergarten. The building has been renovated in recent years. It now forms, together with the former Hollandsche Schouwburg across the street, the National Holocaust Museum where the history of the persecution of Jews in the Netherlands is told.
The architect wanted to preserve the historical elements of the buildings and also make them suitable for the function as a museum; as a place of remembrance and a place where history is passed on to future generations. The aim of the architectural design was to provide space so that the personal stories could come to life for the visitors and to give visitors a sense of place: this happened here.
The history of the building
The building dates from 1888 and was designed by architect G.B. Salm. In 1907, the Reformed Training School for Teachers and Teachers moved into the building. During the Second World War, hundreds of Jewish children were smuggled from the nursery at number 31 via the nursery school to safe places. The Hollandse Schouwburg, opposite the Kweekschool, was the assembly point for Jews to be transported to the concentration camps.
In 1953, the attic of the school became a ‘normal’ third floor and a gymnasium was built in the rear area, designed by architect G.A. Roobol. The school became the Reformed Pedagogical Academy in the 1960s, which merged with other Christian vocational training schools in 1984 and then left the building. From 1988 to 2011, a school for Individual Secondary Artistic Education (IVKO) was housed in the building. A temporary National Holocaust Museum opened in 2016 in the old training school. The building was then extensively renovated until the museum could be permanently housed there in 2024.