Amsterdam - Jewish Quarter

(Local Name: Jodenbuurt) The former Jewish quarter extends from the Houtkoopersburgwal in the north to the Binnen-Amstel in the south. The first Jewish refugees came to Amsterdam at the end of the 16th C. and settled in the area around the Waterlooplein (Jodenbreestraat, Valkenburgerstraat, Oude Schans). They were mostly from Portugal, but also from Germany and Poland. The Jewish quarter had a special charm, with its countless little second-hand shops, haberdashers and greengrocers. A market used to be held on the Waterlooplein on Sundays, although it was hard to see how the dealers could make a living from selling their second-hand goods. After the Second World War hardly anything was left of what had once been the charming Jewish quarter around the Waterlooplein. Deportation robbed the streets of their people - of the 140,000 Jews who lived in Amsterdam before the War only a fifth survived the Holocaust. In the 1960s the building of an expressway drastically changed the face of the quarter, then a cutting was made for the building of the Metro, leaving only a row of houses on the Amstel, until those too were demolished in 1976. The Waterlooplein has made a comeback, however. Today it is the site of Amsterdam's opera house, "Het Muziektheater", which shares its building with the new town hall, and the Jewish past is recalled in the Joods Historisch Museum.