The Verzetstram will soon be squeaking and creaking through Amsterdam. The Resistance Museum will be closed due to a renovation. The alternative: a 90-year-old tram that takes you along with a guide along a number of places that were important during the war. Job Cohen, chairman of the Amsterdam 4 & 5 May committee, was allowed to officially open the tram.
The ride starts at the museum and passes, among other things, the Hollandsche Schouwburg, Dam Square and Muiderpoort station. “The war is still an important element in our lives and the life of the city,” said Cohen.
Municipal tram
The trams of the GVB (which was first called the Municipal Tram) also played a major role during the Second World War. For example, many Jews were able to escape by jumping on the trams at the Hollandsche Schouwburg, where they had to gather and then go to concentration camps. The guide says: “The tram employees knew very well what was going on, so often they already opened the gates, so that people could jump into the tram more easily.”
Cohen’s mother also escaped death in this way, he says. “She was walking with two officers next to her when she ran away and got on a tram.”
War survivor Louis Biesbrouck can remember all too well what the trams meant to him during the war. “The teacher at the Linaeus School asked if we could bring something to burn, because it was so cold.” Biesbrouck says that wooden blocks used to be between the tram rails and that they were often stolen. “Those were tarred blocks and they could burn for a long time. As soon as I had such a block, I lowered it into my knickers. The Germans shot at everyone who did that, so it was a bit link. And so I went to school up.”
Deportation
But the trams also have a dark history. For example, the Municipal Tram also helped with the transport of Jews to deportation places. Fifty to sixty thousand Jews were thus taken away by the Municipal Tram. Liesbeth van der Horst, director of the Resistance Museum, says: “The deportation was of course a painful thing. We also tell you that. The Verzetstram is not only about the resistance, but also about the things the resistance was aimed at.”
The first Resistance tram will leave for the public on 15 May. From then on, the tram will run every Sunday, twice a day, until the renovation is complete.