Originally written December 2022
When I was small, my family went to Mexico for a vacation, I barely remember it except a scorching sunburn. Then in 2007, I flew internationally to Montreal, Canada for trans-affirming medical care. More about that another time, but in short I was there for a purpose and it wasn’t to be a tourist. For a long time after, I saw international travel as not financially accessible for me. This year, when I paid over $2,000 out of pocket for or a minor ankle surgery, I realized I could travel internationally for less than that! And I figured out how to do so in a way that fit for my sick/disabled body/mind. My first off-continent trip was humbling and wondrous, and a tremendous privilege to access.
One of the things I immediately noticed in both Iceland and Amsterdam was that typical businesses were open for fewer hours (often 10am-5pm). Most grocery stores closed by 8pm. The pace felt different.
Iceland for me in two words: isolated nature. While staying within 3 hours of Reykjavik, I saw multi-level waterfalls, geothermal pools, tasted sweet rye bread cooked for 24 hours in the hot ground, got sprayed by a geyser, and drove across almost alien landscapes shaped like the lava that made them. From afar, I checked out a light installation by Yoko Ono called “Imagine Peace Tower” in tribute to John Lennon, plus the Icelandic punk museum, and an Icelandic history/saga museum where I learned that Iceland had no indigenous population, and was settled in 874 CE by Norwegians who brought Irish servant laborers.
In contrast, Amsterdam was bustling. Full of artistic history, delicious food, and abundant culture. Amsterdam for me in two words: urban historic. I sat with many contradictions while enjoying it immensely. The romantic canals that define the city were in part financed by fortunes from sugar plantations in Suriname, slavery not allowed inside of the Netherlands but rampant in Dutch colonies. I learned a lot (and am still learning so much) in particular about Jews in the Netherlands. Jewish history in Amsterdam is hundreds of years old, beginning with communities of Sephardic Jews pushed out of Spain and Portugal in the late 1500s and early 1600s. They settled in Amsterdam and built one of the world’s largest synagogues in 1675.
[Image description: the interior of the Portuguese synagogue (Esnoga) in Amsterdam. In the foreground, dozens of beautiful wooden benches under a domed wooden roof, held up by large pillars. Several chandeliers with candles hang down from the ceiling. A large and ornate Heikhal (or Torah ark) in the background houses many Torah scrolls.]
Connecting the dots, it’s likely that part of that building may have been financed by the plantation colonies, where some Jewish people owned property and people. The Portuguese synagogue survives and holds services to this day (still without electricity in the main area, as when it was built) in part because it was saved from becoming a Nazi-led deportation center in the 1940s. Until recently, the pews/benches held the possessions of families and members who were murdered, and today they are persevered.
During the Holocaust, Nazis formed Jewish Councils of Jewish people as community liaisons who handed out decrees and yellow stars. In Amsterdam, reminders of this genocidal period were plentiful, but mostly limited to the Jewish quarter (neighborhood). On the other hand, acknowledgement of slavery and anti-Blackness were almost entirely absent throughout the museums and tours.
[Image description: large bale of fabric with Stars of David hangs in a glass case. From the museum’s official description:
Bale of material with Stars of David
From 3 May 1942, all Jews aged six and over in the Netherlands had to wear Stars of David, the aim being to further isolate them.
The star had to be sewn onto a garment on the left at chest height. The material was made by the former Jewish factory N.V. Stoomweverij De Nijverheid in Enschede, then in German hands. The stars cost four cents apiece.
The Jewish Council was informed about the measure by the German occupying authorities on 29 April 1942. It was told to distribute the stars and explain how they were to be worn.
1942 JHM B1824, on loan from the NIOD]
I was left with a strong sense that fascism increasing in the U.S. (which in the first place, never went away) has drawn directly from the Nazi regime, who were originally inspired by the U.S. treatment of Native Americans. The extermination of millions took place in a “modern” “civilized” society by the measures of white supremacy. Yesterday’s Jewish Councils are echoed in today’s politics. The same cycles persist.
Overall, I feel incredibly grateful reflecting on my travels, the beautifully barren landscapes of southwest Iceland dotted with tourist traps, horses stout and furry, tourism booming. So cold but so much geothermal heat. The bustling city of Amsterdam, with nearly as many bicycles as people, hundreds of years maintaining metropolitan canals, while technically resting below sea level. My perspective has been widened and humbled to be sure.
Being outside of the U.S. for even 10 days deepened my understanding of what I knew theoretically, but had not known experientially. As Bryan Stevenson discusses in his 2012 TEDTalk “We need to talk about an injustice”, the U.S. has broadly refused to grapple with our history as some other countries have:
“I was giving some lectures in Germany about the death penalty. It was fascinating, because one of the scholars stood up after the presentation and said, ‘Well, you know, it's deeply troubling to hear what you're talking about.’ He said, ‘We don't have the death penalty in Germany, and of course, we can never have the death penalty in Germany.’ And the room got very quiet, and this woman said, ‘There's no way, with our history, we could ever engage in the systematic killing of human beings. It would be unconscionable for us to, in an intentional and deliberate way, set about executing people.’
And I thought about that. What would it feel like to be living in a world where the nation-state of Germany was executing people, especially if they were disproportionately Jewish? I couldn't bear it. It would be unconscionable. And yet, in this country, in the states of the Old South, we execute people -- where you're 11 times more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white than if the victim is Black, 22 times more likely to get it if the defendant is Black and the victim is white -- in the very states where there are, buried in the ground, the bodies of people who were lynched. And yet, there is this disconnect.”
[Image description: a small memorial monument made of black marble with a small sculpture on top. The marble is engraved with three images of people speaking sign language and these words:
de wereld bleef doof
Ter nagedachtenis aan de Joodse Dove slachtoffers van het naziregime
In memory of the Jewish Deaf victims of the nazi regime
1940-1945]