D.G. Hondius

Access to the Netherlands of Enslaved and Free Black Africans. Exploring Legal and Social Historical Practices, 16th-19th century.

Dutch merchant and maritime history includes a black presence from the sixteenth century onwards. As a country that self-identifies as freedom-loving, the Dutch involvement in the slave trade and slavery creates a problem of justification within the Netherlands. This article explores the development of legal history as well as individual case histories. Slaves could obtain freedom from their owners as a result of an owners individual decision, by marriage, by baptism, by remaining in the Netherlands long enough, or when their enslaved parents were freed. The Dutch authorities attempted to keep the involvement in slavery out of sight in the Netherlands. The small presence of blacks in the country was the result of a highly selective process of enabling and restricting access. The Netherlands remained ‘white’ for centuries, in spite of its colonial empire, but not entirely. This article presents the long absence of visibly black communities in Europe as the result of practical restrictions as well as conscious legal exclusion.

Finding common ground in education about the Holocaust and slavery

In scholarship on the Holocaust and the history of slavery, historians and other academics have, over the years, developed both abstract concepts and concrete activities. Teachers and developers of educational materials have translated complex events into digestible entities fit for use within and outside the classroom, often including new insights and new approaches in their teaching. This paper argues that the history of the Holocaust and the history of slavery share common elements regarding the way in which these painful episodes in history have been remembered, mentioned, processed and the extent to which they are reflected upon in schoolbooks and lesson plans. Theoretically, the paper explores the use of ‘conceptual history’. It concludes that certain shared characteristics and connections may be useful when designing curriculum and lesson plans for todays multicultural classrooms. The case of the Netherlands is used throughout to illustrate general trends.

Black European voices: The ambivalent reception of Jacobus Eliza Capitein (1717-1747)

In the early modern period, black European lives were and remained highly visible and exceptional. This article focuses on the experiences and reception of Jacobus Capitein and two other African men who came to Europe as children in the eighteenth century. Jacobus Capitein was enslaved when he entered the Netherlands. He came from the Gold Coast, now part of Ghana, entered higher circles and received a privileged education. Capitein wrote a thesis in theology at Leiden University. As an immigrant amongst the Dutch, his texts were attempts to translate his experiences and memories for a Dutch audience. As a theologist, he addressed the international community of scholars, writing in Latin. Capiteins eighteenth-century study in theology can be seen as a consequence of his conversion to Christianity and acceptance in Christian circles. Gratitude and apology are important elements in his personal narratives but a contrast between his positive individual African–European friendships on the one hand, and the harsh limitations he met in his working life are evident. These simultaneous and contrasting experiences marked the ambivalent reception he received, and help explain why his stay in Europe, and that of many other Africans, remained temporary.In the early modern period, black European lives were and remained highly visible and exceptional. This article focuses on the experiences and reception of Jacobus Capitein and two other African men who came to Europe as children in the eighteenth century. Jacobus Capitein was enslaved when he entered the Netherlands. He came from the Gold Coast, now part of Ghana, entered higher circles and received a privileged education. Capitein wrote a thesis in theology at Leiden University. As an immigrant amongst the Dutch, his texts were attempts to translate his experiences and memories for a Dutch audience. As a theologist, he addressed the international community of scholars, writing in Latin. Capiteins eighteenth-century study in theology can be seen as a consequence of his conversion to Christianity and acceptance in Christian circles. Gratitude and apology are important elements in his personal narratives but a contrast between his positive individual African–European friendships on the one hand, and the h...

Learning from Eyewitnesses: Examining the History and Future of Personal Encounters with Holocaust Survivors and Resistance Fighters.

This chapter summarises the main findings of a study on the educational culture of memory. It analyses the role and the potential of eyewitnesses as teachers. As the first generation of Holocaust survivors slowly disappears, it is important to reconstruct what they have tried to convey to youth, and to what effect. The study of educational memorial cultures is a new interdisciplinary field of research, linking historical, educational, pedagogical, social science, and memory studies. Every nation has its own history of education, and in every nation two elements exist in the politics of memory: pride and shame. These opposites create a continuous tension. The chapter reports on three significant developments: (a) the change from silencing the memories and experiences of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust to addressing them, with a turning point in the early 1980s; (b) the change in managing and accepting emotions in education and teaching, from a refusal and rejection of emotion to embracing emotion; and (c) unexpected consequences of the growing attention for individual eyewitness testimony, including a diminishing of education about World War II as an international history involving multiple continents. The chapter addresses the dilemmas involved in taking multiple perspectives in education about World War II, and it provides practical suggestions for effective teaching with testimonies and with eyewitnesses as teachers.

The Holocaust: voices of scholars [Review of: J. Ambrosewicz-Jacobs (2009) The Holocaust: voices of scholars.]

Taylor and Francis CEJI_A_474246.sgm 10.1080/14675981003737240 Intercultural Education 467-5986 (pri t)/1469-8439 (online) Original Article 2 10 & Francis 1 S0 0 002010 Di nkeHondius dg h di s@let.vu.nl The Holocaust: voices of scholars, edited by Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Cracow, Centre for Holocaust Studies, Jagiellonian University and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Austeria Publishing House, 2009, 297 pp., 50.00 PLN (hardback), ISBN 978-83-89129-88-8