The great Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh visited a Jewish cemetery in Amsterdam in May, 1877 — and wrote to his brother, Theo, about the experience.
The web site Van Gogh Routes, which enables users to follow in Vincent’s footsteps around Europe, reports on his visit to the Zeeburg Jewish cemetery, in an outlying district of the city known today as Flevopark. In a post that includes a map and other resources, it writes:
In May 1877, Vincent walked from his home in eastern Amsterdam to Zeeburg, an area further east. He visited the Jewish cemetery on Zeeburgerdijk and wrote to Theo:
“It’s very simple, full of old tombstones standing upright with Hebrew inscriptions and elderberries here and there, and covered with long, dark grass.”(Click to read the complete letter)
He evidently found the cemetery a pretty spot, for a week later he went there again.
Today, the Zeeburg Jewish cemetery — founded in 1714 and now more than 300 years old — presents quite a different view from when Van Gogh took his walk.
Closed in 1914 and long neglected after WW2, it remains largely overgrown with reeds and other vegetation. Most of its grave markers have been removed, or are lost, or toppled and covered by earth. Only relatively few remain standing and visible.
A Foundation for the cemetery’s restoration was set up in 2008, but, according to its web site:
Restoring the original situation for the site as a whole was impossible and, because of the nature value of the area, also undesirable. Instead, the foundation decided to free and restore one section with about 100 gravestones (out of four hundred graves) from the period 1883-1885, at the southern end of the cemetery.
Thanks to the Foundation and its work, this part of the cemetery is relatively clear now, and since 2013 the cemetery can be visited — generally on the first Sunday of the month during spring, summer, and fall with group tours at other times organized on request. (See bottom of this post for details).
The vast part of its approximately eight hectares remains overgrown, and even the pathways through it can be hard to navigate, as JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber found this past summer on a visit.
The first burial in Zeeburg took place on October 12, 1714 — according to the Jewish Amsterdam web site it was that of a young boy named Israel ben Joseph Lisser.
Serving the Ashkenazic Jewish community, the cemetery was in fact established for the burials of children, as well as for poorer Jews and Jews who were not official members of the community.
It is located in part on soggy land, on the site of a filled-in pond caused by a dyke breach, and — as Van Gogh could attest — within walking distance from the city center.
That made funerals much easier to organize than at the then-existing Ashkenazic Jewish cemetery, particularly if the person died on or on the day before Shabbat or another Jewish holiday. That earlier cemetery, founded in 1641-2, is located in Muiderberg, around 20 km from the city center, and is still in use today.
As one description put it:
The funeral procession to the cemetery at Muiderberg would be with a horse and cart and then by barge. This was so time-consuming it couldn’t take place on […] holidays. But Zeeburg lay much nearer the city.
During its 200 years of regular operation, from 1714-1914, as many as 150,000 or more people were buried at Zeeburg. More than two-thirds of them were children — including many babies or stillborn infants, according to the Foundation for the restoration of the cemetery.
The Foundation also states that for the first 150 years of the cemetery’s operation, it is believed that graves either had no markers, or that most grave markers were wooden, rather than stone — only one such wooden marker, from 1849, is preserved and is now in the collection of the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam.
Only occasional adult burials took place in Zeeburg cemetery after 1914 (though infants and stillborn continued to be buried there), and after World War II the cemetery fell into near total neglect. There was little if any maintenance, and the area became overgrown with reeds and other vegetation.
What’s more, in 1956, its size was reduced by five hectares and some 28,000 burials were transferred to the new Jewish cemetery in Diemen(founded in 1914 when Zeeburg closed), due to the construction of a roadway and park.
Today, the Muiderberg Jewish cemetery (at Googweg 6, Muiderberg) remains the largest Jewish cemetery in the Netherlands still in use, with an estimated 45,000 graves spreading out over dozens of hectares. (A database of burials from 1834 to 1945 is available online — click HERE.)
Most of the cemetery is well maintained, though parts of the older sections are overgrown. There is also a Holocaust memorial.
VISITING ZEEBURG JEWISH CEMETERY
Scheduled opening days for the Jewish cemetery in Zeeburg in 2020:
- ◙ 5 April 2020
- ◙ 3 May 2020
- ◙ 7 June 2020
- ◙ July 5, 2020
- ◙ 2 August 2020
- ◙ September 6, 2020
On open days the cemetery is accessible from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with guided tours at 12 noon and 3 p.m.
The Foundation advises:
The paths are not paved. The cemetery is located on low and therefore soon soggy, peaty soils. And there are quite a few blackberries and nettles. Adjust clothing and footwear accordingly.
LEARN MORE:
Web site of the Foundation for the Restoration of the Zeeburg Cemetery
Database of burials at the Muiderberg Jewish cemetery
History of Muiderberg Jewish cemetery
2 comments on “Netherlands: Vincent Van Gogh and an Amsterdam Jewish cemetery (or two)”
In the Midwestern United States, there has been considerable success in cleaning up old cemeteries by bringing in goats. A local business called Goats on the Go brings in electric fencing and goats. They collect the goats when the work is done. Has anyone considered this? Can any local farmer or business care for this matter?
This is a great idea!