The Dutch Good Fight

Having been in Holland for nineteen days, it seems natural now that the Dutch way of remembering the struggle against Franco should be so striking, so beautiful, and yet so simple.

"1936-1939 NO PASARAN"
Plein Spanje '36-'39, North Amsterdam
Sculpture by Eddy Roos. 
1986; Bronze, Stainless Steel, Granite.

The inscriptions in Dutch and Spanish read:
"To the Dutch men and women who participated in the Spanish Civil War and fell in the battle against Fascism. Their attitude of vigilance and resistance is a warning --for today and tomorrow --against all forms of Fascism."

The artist remarked as follows: "The figures I adjust in the spiral movement in, so if you look up, you will experience a sense of freedom. You can make people to experience something, even if unconsciously, by a form. You reached so often much more than by a little story to tell. At least, that's the intention. It must have such an effect if I do my job well."

The city commission originally placed the monument at a more drab location, at a shopping center. When the artwork was actually seen, it was changed to a fairly sweet spot along a canal.

Students at the high school across from the square have had programs to revisit the antifascist cause and cherish the monument, but in general, Plein Spanje is not well known in Amsterdam. 

I find it especially sweet that no political party or orientation left its footprint here, as is sometimes the case with war memorials and tends to diminish the visitor's experience.