(
visit link) (luggage) is a monument in Leiden. It consists of six vintage suitcases, carved from different rock types, which are scattered throughout the city. The monument has been erected in memory of the Jewish fellow citizens who were killed during World War II. Maker is the Dutch / Israeli artist Ram Katzir. The suitcases are unveiled on 17 March 2010.
On March 17, 1943 in Leiden and surroundings a raid took place in which all Jews who were not in hiding were arrested and deported. 270 of them were killed in the concentration and extermination camps.
The reason for making the monument was an exhibition in 2003 at the Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, about the history of the Jews in Leiden and surroundings in the period 1933-1945. Through this exhibition, the need arose for a monument.
By whom are these different suitcases left behind? The two side by side in the Zonneveldstraat forgotten by a mother and child? What stories hides the elegant suitcase at the Vliet? And what happened to the young owner of the basalt suitcase at the Roodenburgstraat? The apparently casually placed suitcases are in fact an anti-monument, with absence in the leading role. The title refers literally to what each of us takes in life, but also what we leave behind. Luggage is an intimate monument which will start the dialogue.
And will stimulate young and old thinking about the consequences of exclusion by people from one another.
The Jewish orphanage in Leiden has a rich history but a tragic ending. In the evening of 17 March 1943, the orphanage was evacuated by about 20 policemen. The policemen collected all 51 children and 9 staff of the orphanage. They were forced to leave everything behind and transported by train to Westerbork. From Westerbork they would to Germany to a forced labor camp.
56 of them never returned.