Toespraak minister Bruins bij de inauguratie van de European Holocaust Research Infrastructure als Europese onderzoeksinfrastructuur
Op zondag 26 januari 2025 hield minister Eppo Bruins (OCW) een toespraak in het POLIN MUSEUM voor de Geschiedenis van de Poolse Joden in Warschau, dat gevestigd is op de plek van het voormalige Joodse getto van Warschau. De gelegenheid was de inauguratie van de European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) als Europese onderzoeksinfrastructuur.
De hoofdzetel van deze onderzoeksinfrastructuur komt in Nederland. De onderzoeksinfrastructuur bundelt de beschikbare openbare gegevens over de Holocaust uit verschillende Europese landen.
De toespraak is alleen beschikbaar in het Engels. Het gesproken woord geldt.
Distinguished guests, dear friends,
Many before me have been left speechless. Here, on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. And of course in Auschwitz, which I visited yesterday with a group of students and officials. These places command a breathless silence. Their profound darkness swallows all human understanding and expression.
But here, in the POLIN Museum, that silence is broken. By the Jewish residents of the ghetto themselves. Visitors to this museum are introduced to a clandestine group of Jewish historians, writers, rabbis, and social workers. During the darkest days, they operated under the code name Oyneg Shabbos, meaning ‘Joy of the Sabbath’. They sensed what was coming for the Warsaw Ghetto. They knew they would not survive. Every Saturday afternoon – hence their name ‘Joy of the Sabbath’ – they met in secret to document every aspect of the lives of those imprisoned in the ghetto.
In 1943, just before the mass deportations began, the group buried the evidence they had gathered. David Graber, a 19-year-old Polish Jew, added his own personal testament to this remarkable archive. He wrote: "What we were unable to cry and shriek out to the world, we buried in the ground. I would love to see the moment in which the great treasure will be dug up and scream the truth at the world. So the world may know all."
I cannot conceive of a more powerful expression of an archive’s value. The Jews of Warsaw buried the truth so that the truth would outlive them. In 1950, just a 15-minute walk from here, construction workers stumbled upon 2 metal milk cans filled with documents. They turned out to be part of the Oyneg Shabbos archive.
80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, the moral call to us is to continue searching for the truth in sources and archives. To bring the truth to light.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I feel deeply privileged to be here with you. I stand before you as the grandchild of a Polish-Jewish grandmother. As a citizen of a country which deported many of its Jews to the Nazi extermination camps, notably Auschwitz and Sobibor.
On this Sunday, the Netherlands commemorates the Shoa. And tomorrow, the commemoration in Auschwitz will be attended by the King and Queen of the Netherlands, their eldest daughter, Princess of Orange, our Prime Minister and the Minister responsible for the commemoration of the Second World War.
Today, I stand here as the minister responsible for science and cultural heritage. In this capacity, I am also responsible for the application to consolidate the work of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure in the form of a European Research Infrastructure Consortium. It is a great honor for the Netherlands to be the host country of this European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Consortium, EHRI-ERIC for short.
It is profoundly meaningful to celebrate the inauguration of the consortium with you today, in this place that can scarcely bear the weight of history. Together we are witnessing the transformation of EHRI, from a series of successful projects running since 2010, into a permanent European organization that will help secure the future of transnational Holocaust research, commemoration, and education.
You have come here today from all corners of the world. Likewise, information about the Holocaust is scattered across many countries and thousands of archives, libraries, museums, and other research institutions, both in Europe and beyond. This fragmentation makes it difficult for researchers to find and access the information they need. As a result, Holocaust research was often conducted in isolation, and lacked a broader global perspective.
What we envision with EHRI is to link every one of these isolated points in a worldwide network, using state-of-the-art scientific methods. We aim to bring together expertise from all corners of the world, and provide both researchers and citizens with easy digital access to these resources. For the purposes of research, remembrance and education.
In the Netherlands, we are currently hard at work to make our largest wartime archive digitally searchable and accessible. This archive contains information on individuals investigated for collaboration after the Second World War.
Imagine 4 kilometers of war archive that is fully text searchable, including every last handwritten note. Finally, after 80 years, survivors and their descendants will be able to explore their family histories in entirely new ways.
Imagine what can be discovered when we combine government records, such as this Dutch archive, with Oyneg Shabbos’s compelling evidence of day-to-day life in the ghetto. Different lenses on interconnected truths will shed new light on this dark period in European history.
The new EHRI-ERIC will be coordinated by the NIOD, the Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. It is an affirmation of the valuable role that this Dutch institute plays in transnational Holocaust research.
A driving force behind the creation of EHRI was Conny Kristel, who sadly passed away in 2018. 8 years before her untimely death, Conny highlighted EHRI’s groundbreaking potential. She told a Dutch newspaper, and I quote:
"The exciting thing is that we cannot yet foresee exactly where EHRI will lead. We will find new and different answers to the questions we are already exploring. And we will come up with new questions."
Dear friends,
On the piece of paper he added to the Oyneg Shabbos archive before it was buried, 19-year-old David Graber wrote: “…May the treasure fall into good hands, may it last into better times, may it alarm and alert the world to what happened.”
Like someone who is drowning, the past is reaching out its hand to us. It is our responsibility to lift it from the dark waters.
My heartfelt wish is that EHRI will give a human face to the horrors of the Shoa for every generation to come. 6 million human faces. I pray that knowledge and research into our past will become a powerful antidote to antisemitism in all our societies, a powerful reminder that Europe rose from the ashes of Auschwitz.
May all this work shed light on this pitch dark era. For, as Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught us, darkness is driven away by light. May the past itself break our silence.
I want to thank each and every one of you who are part of this vital process. May your work be a blessing that echoes through time, so that we do justice to the millions who lost their lives during the Shoa. May we remember and mention their names for generations to come.
Thank you very much.