Fled for the inquisition
Over the centuries there have been several reasons to come to Noord-Holland. In the 16th century, for example, the Spanish Inquisition ensured that a large group of Portuguese Jews had to flee and found a safe time in Amsterdam. A descendant of them is Pollo the alleg that with his daughter Sascha on Beth Haim, the Jewish cemetery in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, finds more about his ancestors. The Pollo family suffered a lot under the Second World War. A large part was murdered.
For centuries before that, the family was also a victim of violence: “They fled because of their faith. Many have also been killed and humiliated,” says Pollo. Of the ancestors who have built up a new existence in Amsterdam, 130 may be buried here. “That does something to me. There is a lot of history here.”
Migration is of all times
That people from other places come here is not something from the past. That dynamic is still there. Whether for work, study or love. Anouk summarizes it: “In the end we all come from migrants.”