The lecture in the Camp Westerbork Remembrance Center that was planned for this Sunday will not take place due to threats against speaker Wahhab Hassoo. That’s what the organization writes on its website. Hassoo himself writes down X, former Twitter, that the lecture cannot take place due to threats to him and his family. “The safety risks for those present at the lecture have also been taken into account in this consideration.”
Hassoo would give the lecture together with Emmy Drop-Menko. He would speak about Yazidis, the ethnic and religious minority living in Kurdistan. Since the Islamic State group invaded the area, they have been victims of genocide and other atrocities. The Jewish Drop-Menko lost her family during the Second World War and would talk about anti-Semitism and the Holocaust in Westerbork.
The duo often gives lectures together, especially at schools and universities. Hassoo says it is disappointing that it cannot continue now. “I never, really never thought I would experience this in the Netherlands, a painful reality.” For the sake of Hassoo’s safety, nothing has been disclosed about the nature of the threats.