It has been 85 years since thirteen council members were removed from office because they were Jewish or members of the Communist Party. Five of them were murdered and one died of a heart attack while in hiding.
Current council members, Lian Heinhuis (PvdA) and Itay Garmy (Volt), started an investigation into the council members who were expelled from the council in 1940. “We noticed that there was total silence,” says Heinhuis. “There was only one colleague who spoke out, to which the group leader said: ‘Let’s not get sentimental.'”
Garmy adds: “You would expect representatives to speak out against injustice. And especially when you see it happening next to you in your own room.”
Daughter
There were speeches from mayor Femke Halsema, writer Arnon Grunberg and Danielle Sajet, among others. She is the daughter of one of the expelled council members, Ben Sajet. “My father would have liked this, although he spoke very little about the war. It is good that attention is now being paid to the fact that my father was expelled from the council, and that his colleagues did not respond to it at the time. Although I can understand it, there was a lot of fear of the German occupier.”
In addition to this commemoration, Garmy and Heinhuis also want a tangible commemoration at the Stopera. It is not yet clear what exactly this will look like.