Last time I wrote about Kattenburg and how the whole neighbourhood was erased to make space for the new apartment buildings. Still, Kattenburg was not so central as the Old Jewish neighbourhood which was actually right in centre of the city and was eventually almost completely obliterated, for various reasons. Not only that the area was poor, neglected and overcrowded but during the WW2 the majority of Jews living here were arrested and sent to concentration camps, while the houses fell in disrepair (in other words, their nice neighbours stole everything from these houses and later used whatever they could as a firewood). After WW2 the decision was made not to rebuilt these houses but to erase everything and create the new neighbourhood instead. So it came to be that famous, vibrant Jodenbreestraat was completely destroyed, re-designed and widened. Judging by the old photographs, it was a very important street full of people and it was a heart of Jewish quarter - Rembrandt used to live here, in a house initially owned by art dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh. I walk here almost daily and its just amazing how completely everything from the past was erased, with utter indifference what it meant for the heart of the city. Rembrandt's house had to be preserved but almost everything else was forever gone and rebuilt to give space for the new apartment buildings.
The perfect example how utterly destroyed this neighbourhood became was situation around beautiful historical building knowns as Huis De Pinto - built in 1605, this was a house of wealthy Portuguese Jewish family and for centuries was right in the heart of the Jewish district but after WW2 the whole area was completely devastated and destroyed - mind you, not by the bombings or the war but by the Amsterdammers themselves who abused and stole everything they could from the empty old houses whose owners were arrested and deported. At certain point this beautiful old house was literary the only house still standing - the municipality had other plans (to destroy it and to built a motorway here) but the demonstrations and riots prevented this. Everything else is new but Huis De Pinto still stands on its original place.
Right across the street from Rembrandt's house is a funny little crooked house, now serving as a restaurant - The Gosler House is literary the only thing still standing from the whole area and its fascinating to see the city archive collection, where it shows that this little house (owned by Abraham Gosler who was killed in Auschwitz) was once on the corner of the neighbourhood known as Joden Houttuinen - this whole area was demolished and on its place now stands a very modern school of arts. The old photographs are brilliant and they show countless little houses and a very crowded neighbourhood that once stood here. Apparently it was the slum where only the poorest lived.
Uilenburg is the old Jewish quarter right opposite of Rembrandt's house. Originally the place for the warehouses, it became Jewish area around 17th century and was known as the poorest part of town, overcrowded and dilapidated, even before WW2. In fact, the municipality tried to re-design and re-construct the whole area since beginning of 1900s - nowadays there is only one wide street (Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat) where two narrow streets used to be. During WW2 almost everybody who used to live here was killed in concentration camps. If you walk here today, it looks like a perfectly serene and quiet neighbourhood but in fact it has a long past and it was one of the busiest areas of town.
For example, what you see today as a concert venue, was originally built at the beginning of 1900s as a public bathhouse for all the people in the neighbourhood who had no baths in their homes (Amsterdam had several of these). It looks perfectly fine now, but before 1900 there were two streets on this spot and if you check the old photographs, its mind boggling how much the city has changed in the meantime.
The complete elimination of old historical areas right in the centre of city was not over - the municipality had also set their minds on erasing the old market squares around Marken and Waterlooplein. When the plans came to destroy the old historical quarter around Nieuwmarkt (to make space for the new Metro line) this was the last straw - the citizens passionately fought to keep the old houses and there were genuine riots, fights with police and resistance from residents. This constant demolition had to be stopped. Once you find about this, it makes you wonder how anything was saved at all.
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