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The Passing of Dutch Jewry:
An Elegy
- Abstract
After a great war, some men return to their country to find its cities and towns in ruins—but the people are still there. Others return to find a terrible void—their generation has been decimated; but the life they have always known flows once again through habitual, venerable channels. Their generation is decimated—but the people are still there. And we—what have we found? The country is still there, but the people—our people—are not. History has entombed them. The human beings who peopled our infancy, our youth, the familiar talk that hummed through our ears like a well-known song, have ceased to exist. Until the end of our days we shall know the futile wish to see these people walk, act, think and react in their own peculiar manner; but they will not return.
There are still Jews in Holland. I have met them. They now constitute a community like the Jewish communities of the Scandinavian countries: no longer an integrated unit—only a collection of individuals. They still have a special psychological make-up and characteristic thoughts, but they no longer have a way of life of their own.
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