Dutch school to commemorate Holocaust despite vandalism concerns

THE HAGUE, the Netherlands (JTA) — A Christian school in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood has resumed a plan to unveil a plaque in memory of Holocaust victims, despite concerns of anti-Semitic vandalism.

The board of the Paul Kruger School in The Hague said last week that it would move ahead with the plan, which was shelved in recent years because of what school officials said were “concerns that youths would destroy the monument.”

Stichting Christelijk Onderwijs, the association that runs the school, said in a statement on June 5 that it is “in talks with the directors of the school about setting up of the plaque.”

The school, which was named for an Afrikaner national leader, was a Jewish high school before the Holocaust.

It had shelved the plan, according to the De Telegraaf daily, over “concerns that the plaque would anger Muslim residents” of Schilderswijk — a neighborhood of 30,000 where a majority of residents are from Muslim countries.

The school’s board denied it has received any complaints by Muslims about the plaque.

The rightist Party for Freedom has written to Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten to demand the government launch a study of anti-Semitism among Muslim immigrants.