A talk on genocide by a Yazidi refugee at the Netherlands’ most poignant second World War commemorative location – the Westerbork transit camp used to transfer Jews to Nazi concentration camps – has been cancelled due to threats which are being taken seriously.
The Yazidis are a religious group indigenous to Kurdistan who came under attack from Islamic State in the mountains of northwest Iraq in 2014. The UN described the assault as “genocide”, saying the once 400,000-strong community had “all been displaced, captured or killed”.
The talk was due to have been given next Sunday by Yazidi survivor Wahhab Hassoo (28), who came to the Netherlands as a refugee at the age of 17. He is now director of the Yazidi Foundation, and plans to run next month in the Dutch general election for the fledgling New Social Contract party.
Mr Hassoo was to have been accompanied in the talk by Jewish speaker, Emmy Drop-Menko (85), who was separated from her parents and two siblings during the war. She later found that they had been transferred from Westerbork and died in Sobibor concentration camp in Poland.
The joint theme, said the organisers of the “eye witness” talk, was to have been “the value of freedom” – born of the fact that between them they had survived two separate genocides.
The threats were targeted specifically at Mr Hassoo, who said he received his first death threats in the Netherlands five years ago.
He said the current threats had been “specific” and the decision had been taken in co-operation with the organisers and the police to cancel the talk.
The threats had been aimed at him personally and at his family, he said, but “the potential risks to the audience” were “equally important”.
“I really never thought I would experience this in the Netherlands,” he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It is a painful reality, but it has to be this way for now.”
Mr Hassoo and Ms Drop-Menko have spoken together before, and Mr Hassoo added: “Emmy and I are determined that we will share our stories again.”
Meanwhile, the Netherlands’ only orthodox Jewish school, the Cheider School in Amsterdam, has closed its doors for the second time in the past fortnight, saying it will teach online while the violence in Gaza continues.
The mayor of The Hague has warned of “rising tensions” particularly between Palestinian supporters and the anti-Islam organisation, Pegida.
