May 4, 2014. I am in a dark gymnasium, part of a former school across the street from the Hollandsche Schouwburg. Since the school moved out some time ago, the building has been used as a temporary residence. Today, however, about 50 people are gathered here for the Open Joodse Huizen on national Remembrance Day. Annemiek Gringold, curator of the Jewish Historical Museum, tells us about the history of this location as it relates to the Jewish children who were kept at the Crèche two doors down. Several hundred of these children were rescued and one of the smuggling routes passed through this building. Next to the Crèche was Huize Frank, an elderly home that stood empty in January 1943. The building was taken into use by Walter Suskind as office space and by Virrie Cohen, one of the nurses who took care of the children at the Crèche during the deportations. On the other side of Huize Frank was the Kweekschool, the building we are currently visiting, at that time a training college for schoolteachers, run by Johan van Hulst. As the Creche became too small to accommodate all the children, Cohen asked Van Hulst if he could use one of the classrooms as a dormitory.

At this moment in her presentation, Gringold points to her left in the general direction of this classroom. The audience collectively turns its heads despite the fact that there is nothing to see. Some people keep looking, in vain, as if they expect to find a trace of these events.

Gringold continues her story. The gymnasium dates from 1953 and during the occupation it was a garden through which dozens of Jewish children were smuggled out into hiding. She points out that this route went into the opposite direction of the path that we took going into the room. The children were taken outside through the main entrance of the Kweekschool. The passing of the tram was used as a diversion for the guards who stood in front of the Hollandsche Schouwburg. Further down the street, another member of the resistance pulled the children into a portico. Another tactic was to take a group of children out for a walk, have some of them taken away and upon returning, grabbing some children who had not been outside to make sure that the headcount was correct.