ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the commemoration of wars and genocides which have taken place in Europe, and their impact upon Jewish-Muslim relations in Amsterdam and London. The focus is on commemorations of events affecting Jews prior to and during World War II, namely Kristallnacht and the Holocaust, and of the 1995 genocide of Muslims near Srebrenica, Bosnia. In both contexts, many of these commemorations have seen disturbances and controversies. Comparing the commemorations of the first category of events in the UK and the Netherlands, it is striking that there is a stronger opposition against the expansion of these commemorations in order to involve new population groups by Jewish organisations in the Netherlands than in the UK. This may relate to the fact that the Jewish community in the Netherlands suffered far more under the Shoah than the Jewish community in the UK and this community is under more pressure, partly because of its small size and its low level of organisation. The Srebrenica commemoration has led to Muslim-Jewish co-operation in the UK, in the Netherlands Jewish organisations do not participate in this commemoration.
