Panel 6 De Braak
From 1939 onwards, dozens of Amstelveners came to this area of polder every day. They built park De Braak as a job creation scheme. If you were unemployed, you had to work here with shovels and wheelbarrows. All the paths and water features were created manually. The men built the park that Chris Broerse designed in 1938. It became the first real ‘heem park’ in the Netherlands, because Broerse and his assistant Koos Landwehr only used plants that thrived on the acidic and wet peatland. Part of the park had already been an outdoor area, the Elsrijk country estate. The estate disappeared around 1800, the name lives on in the district.
Monument for Jewish fellow citizens
165 names. It is the visibly …
From 1939 onwards, dozens of Amstelveners came to this area of polder every day. They built park De Braak as a job creation scheme. If you were unemployed, you had to work here with shovels and wheelbarrows. All the paths and water features were created manually. The men built the park that Chris Broerse designed in 1938. It became the first real ‘heem park’ in the Netherlands, because Broerse and his assistant Koos Landwehr only used plants that thrived on the acidic and wet peatland. Part of the park had already been an outdoor area, the Elsrijk country estate. The estate disappeared around 1800, the name lives on in the district.
Monument for Jewish fellow citizens
165 names. It is the visibly sad depiction of Jewish citizens who were taken from Amstelveen in the Second World War and murdered. Their names and ages are on the monument, unveiled in 2020 in the bend of the Amsterdamseweg. Above the list is a replica of a note that was thrown from the train on its way from Westerbork to Auschwitz:
7-9-´43
Dear All,
It is time.
Be brave.
You already are.
Mood is fine.
Warm embrace
Next to the monument is the house where Mayor Haspels lived until 1942. He refused to cooperate when Jews were forced to move to Amsterdam in May of that year. That meant his resignation. After the war, Haspels was restored to his position.
