This year Finland celebrates its 100th anniversaryFinland declared its independence on 6 December 1917, in the turmoil created by the October Revolution in Russia. Earlier, Finland had been a part of Sweden until 1809, and after that an autonomous Grand-Duchy under the Russian rule.The hundred years since 1917 have transformed Finland enormously: in the course of one life time Finland has developed from a poor, conflict-ridden nation to a prosperous and modern country. The Fragile States Index 2016 indicated that Finland is “the least–failed nation” in the whole world.By H.E. Mrs. Katri Viinikka, Ambassador of Finland. A country with difficult history and a commitment to peace
The Finnish Civil War in early 1918 between the Reds and the Whites was an extremely traumatic experience and caused great suffering. There are still anonymous mass graves in Finland, dating from those tragic months. The Civil War left the country deeply divided until the Second World War, which united the nation in what is called the Winter War and the Continuation War. The Winter War broke out after the Soviet Union attacked Finland, while the Continuation War started in 1941 after Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Finland remained one of the very few countries not occupied by any country during the World War II. However, it lost a significant portion of its total geographical area to the Soviet Union.
It is partly due to these harsh experiences Finland has become what it is. Finland is very committed to rules-based international order. It has also gained reputation as a trusted mediator: post-conflict reconciliation is something we have had to learn from our own experience.
Our former President Martti Ahtisaari, Nobel Peace Laureate of 2008 , is a concrete example of how a difficult history can shape one’s personal life. He was born in 1937 in Viborg, a town which in the Winter War 1939-40 was annexed by the Soviet Union, its inhabitants being driven out of the town. Mr. Ahtisaari thus became an internally displaced person when he was a small boy. He has said that those childhood experiences have motivated him in his adult commitment to peace. President Ahtisaari was a major contributor when Namibia achieved independence in 1989-1990, he arbitrated in Kosovo in 1999 and 2005-2007, and he helped to bring the long-lasting conflict in the Aceh province in Indonesia to an end in 2005.
A society where no one is left behind
A central element of Finland becoming what it is today is an emphasis on equality – building a society for all. Finland is a Nordic welfare society, where income differences are among the lowest in the world. We are also used to searching compromises; our governments are almost always coalitions among different parties and ideological backgrounds. This is something we are proud of.
Finland has been a forerunner in maternal health and childcare from very early on. The first childcare clinics were established already in the 1920’s. The maternity package, a set of clothing and other items needed for a new-born baby, was introduced in 1938. It is still offered under the Finnish social security system to every Finnish family expecting a baby, regardless of the family’s income or social status.
Gender equality has been a key value in Finland since the country gained its independence. Finland was among the first countries in the world to grant women the right to vote and the right to stand for election. This actually happened already before our independence, in 1906.
In 2013, Finland was ranked to be the best place in the whole world to be a mother (by Save the Children organization). And in Finland it is indeed possible to combine motherhood and career. One important element in enhancing gender equality has been the free warm school meal, which every child receives at school. It was introduced as early as 1948. Equal pay for equal work for men and women in public office has been mandatory since 1963.
At the moment, 50 per cent of our ambassadors are female. How did we achieve this? In my personal opinion, it is a combination of structural reforms in the society on one hand, and a pioneering role and a strong will of some individuals, who have consistently encouraged women and promoted them, on the other.
An open economy and a champion for international cooperation
Like the Netherlands, Finland is an open economy very much depending on foreign trade, and therefore a champion of free trade. The forest industry, which uses renewable raw materials, continues to be the most important economic sector in Finland, followed by the mechanical engineering industry. In the Netherlands, a famous Finnish brand you quite often encounter, without necessarily noticing, is KONE. Its elevators and escalators ensure the smooth flow of people for instance at the Schiphol airport. Also Finnish design is world-famous, and Iittala vases, originally designed by Alvar Aalto, can be found at several upmarket stores in The Hague.
Finland has been an active and constructive member of the European Union since 1995. In the Netherlands we see a very like-minded and important partner on many European and international issues. We are both pragmatic countries willing and able to address global challenges. We are also ready to implement and deliver on what has been agreed.
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Photography by Tia Puumalainen.
By Zlatko Hadžidedić.
A few days ago Observer published a column under the title Putin-Proofing the Balkans: A How-To Guide, written by John Schindler. In this article the author advocates some new geopolitical redesigns of the Balkans which are actually far from being a novelty. These ideas represent a pale copy of the ideas recently published by Foreign Affairs in the article under the title Dysfunction in the Balkans, written by Timothy Less, a former British diplomat who served as the head of the British diplomatic office in Banja Luka, the capital of the Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as the political secretary of the British Embassy in Macedonia.
Less advocates a total redesign of the existing state boundaries in the Balkans: the imagined Greater Serbia should embrace the existing Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but also the entire internationally recognized Republic of Montenegro; the Greater Croatia should embrace a future Croatian entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina; the Greater Albania should embrace both Kosovo and the western part of Macedonia. All these territorial redesigns, says Less and Schindler agrees, would eventually bring about a lasting peace and stability in the region.
It is easy to claim that both Schindler and Less are now only freelancers whose articles have nothing to do with their former employers’ policies. However, the problem is that certain circles within the foreign policy establishment in both Great Britain and the United States, in their numerous initiatives from 1990s onwards, have repeatedly advocated the very same ideas that can be found in these two articles, such as the creation of the imagined monoethnic greater states – Greater Serbia, Greater Croatia and Greater Albania – as an alleged path towards lasting stability in the Balkans, with Bosnia’s and Macedonia’s disappearance as a collateral damage. Of course, these ideas have always been spread below the surface of official policy, but they have never been abandoned, as the ‘coincidence’ of almost simultaneous appearance of Schindler’s and Less’s articles in the renowned mainstream magazines demostrates.
Ostenstibly, the ideas advocated by Schindler and Less are rooted in the plausible presupposition that, as long as the existing nationalist greater-state projects remain unaccomplished, the nationalist resentment will always generate ever-increasing instability. However, the history has clearly demonstrated, both in the Balkans and other parts of the world, that such a presupposition is nothing but a simple fallacy. For, the very concept of completed ethnonational states is a concept that has always led towards perpetual instability wherever applied, because such ethnonational territories cannot be created without projection of extreme coercion and violence over particular ‘inappropriate’ populations, including the techniques which have become known as ethnic cleansing and genocide. The logic of ‘solving national issues’ through creation of ethnically cleansed greater states has always led towards permanent instability, never towards long-term stability. Let us only remember the consequences of the German ruling oligarchy’s attempt to create such a state in the World War II. And let us only try to imagine what the world would be like if their geopolitical project was recognized and accepted in the name of ‘stability’, as now Schindler and Less propose in the case of some other geopolitical projects based on ethnic cleansing and genocide.
What is particularly interesting when it comes to ‘solving national issues’ in the Balkans is the flexibility (i.e. arbitrariness) of the proposed and realized ‘solutions’. First, the winners in the World War I, among whom the British and American officials occupied the most prominent positions, advocated the creation of the common national state of the Southern Slavs at the Peace Conference in Versailles. Then, more than seventy years later, Lord Carrington, the longest serving member of the British foreign policy establishment, chaired another international conference in The Hague where he oversaw the partition of that very state in the name of ‘solving national issues’ between ethnonational states which constituted it.
Together with the Portugese diplomat, Jose Cutileiro, Lord Carrington then also introduced the first, pre-war plan for ethnic partition of Bosnia-Herzegovina (the Carrington-Cutileiro Plan), again in the name of ‘solving national issues’ between the ethnic groups living in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was eventually sealed, with some minor changes, at the international conference in Dayton. And now, here is yet another plan for fragmentation of the Balkan states, again in order to ‘solve national issues’. What is needed in addition is yet another international conference to implement and verify such a plan, and thus turn the Balkans upside-down one more time. Therefore it comes as no surprise that such a conference on the Western Balkans has already been scheduled for 2018 in London.
Yet, how the proposed dismemberment of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, as well as the absorbtion of Montenegro into Greater Serbia, can be made politically acceptable to the population of the Balkans and the entire international community?
What is required to accomplish such a task is a scenario that would make an alternative to dismemberment and absorbtion of sovereign states even less acceptable. It is not difficult to imagine that only a war, or a threat of war, would be such an alternative. However, its feasibility is limited by the fact that no state in the Balkans has the capacities and resources – military, financial, or demographic – to wage a full-scale war, and their leaders are too aware of this to even try to actually launch it. In such a context, the available option is to create an atmosphere that would simulate an immediate threat of war, by constantly raising nationalist tensions between, and within, the states in the region. Of course, such tensions do exist since 1990, but it would be necessary to accumulate them in a long-term campaign so as to create an illusion of imminence of regional war.
Significantly, following the appearance of Less’s article, and simultanously with Schindler’s one, the tensions within Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia have begun to rise. This growth of tensions can hardly be disregarded as accidental, given the fact that the Balkan leaders can easily be played one against another whenever they receive signals, no matter whether fake or true, that a new geopolitical reshuffle of the region is being reconsidered by major global players. Since they are already well-accustomed to raising inter-state and intra-state tensions as a means of their own political survival, it is very likely that they will be able to accumulate such tensions to such a level as to gradually generate a mirage of imminent regional war. Also, a part of the same campaign is the systematic spread of rumours, already performed all over Europe, that a war in the Balkans is inevitable and will certainly take place during 2017.
In the simulated atmosphere of inevitable war, a radical geopolitical reconfiguration of the entire Balkans, including dismemberment of the existing states proclaimed as dysfunctional and their eventual absorbtion into the imagined greater states, may well become politically acceptable. All that is needed is to juxtapose this ‘peaceful’ option and the fabricated projection of imminent war as the only available alternatives, and offer to implement the former at a particular international conference, such as the one scheduled for 2018 in London. What is required for implementation of the proposed geopolitical rearrangement of the Balkans is to spread the perception that the permanent rise of political conflicts in the region inevitably leads to a renewed armed conflict. In that context, all the proposed fallacies about usefulness of geopolitical redesigns in the Balkans may easily acquire a degree of legitimacy, so as to be finally implemented and verified at the 2018 London conference on the Western Balkans.
Of course, if that happens, it can only lead to further resentment and lasting instability in the region and Eastern Europe, and that can only lead to growing instability in the entire Europe. One can only wonder, is that a desired ultimate outcome for those who promote greater state projects in the Balkans as an alleged path towards its stability?
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About the author:Graduate of the London School of Economics, prof. Zlatko Hadžidedić is a prominent thinker, prolific author of numerous books, and indispensable political figure of the former Yugoslav socio-political space in 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.
“Registan Square” in Samarkand city, photo from Uzbekistan National News Agency – UzA.
On November 10-11, 2017, international conference on ensuring safety and sustainable development in Central Asia under the auspices of the UN on “Central Asia: one past and a common future, cooperation for sustainable development and mutual prosperity” will be held in Samarkand.
The forum will become one of the important practical steps on implementation of the initiatives of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, aimed at ensuring safety, socio-economic prosperity and strengthening of regional cooperation in Central Asia. Transformation of Central Asia into a zone of stability, steady development and good-neighborliness is defined by the Head of Uzbekistan as the main priority of foreign policy of the country.
Organizers of the conference are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia and the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia.
According to the organizing committee, more than 500 people will take part in the international event, including foreign ministers of Central Asian countries, high-level official delegations from the CIS countries, Europe, Asia and America, heads of more than 10 international organizations, including the UN, EU, OSCE, SCO, CIS, EBRD, about 100 authoritative international experts and employees of leading foreign mass media, as well as representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Uzbekistan.
In accordance with the program of the forum, speeches will be delivered by the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca, the UN Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS at the United Nations Development Programme Cihan Sultanoglu, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica, OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger, Chairman of the Executive Committee – the CIS Executive Secretary Sergey Lebedev, the SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov, heads of other international structures.
Foreign ministers of the Republic of Kazakhstan – Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the Kyrgyz Republic – Erlan Abdyldaev, the Republic of Tajikistan – Sirojiddin Aslov, Turkmenistan – Rashid Meredov, the Republic of Turkey – Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Islamic Republic of Iran – Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan – Salahuddin Rabbani, Senior Director for South and Central Asia at the US National Security Council Lisa Curtis and other officials of foreign countries will also deliver speeches.
It is expected that Samarkand conference will provide an opportunity for its participants to exchange views on current issues of security and development of the region, to develop proposals on effective ways of their solution. The two-day forum will allow to discuss specific areas of enhancing cooperation between the Central Asian countries in political, trade-economic, investment, transport-communication, hydropower, environmental, cultural and humanitarian spheres, as well as the role of international organizations and partner countries in promoting implementation of the regional development projects and enhancing the potential of countries in countering modern challenges and threats.
By H.E. Mr Vidmantas Purlys, Ambassador of Lithuania to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Lithuania and the Netherlands co-operate in many areas and at different levels, ranging from security to economy. Both countries share similar values of democratic governance, rule of law, human rights, openness to trade and innovation. Lithuania and the Netherlands are partners in the European Union, including the euro area, and allies in NATO. The intensity of co-operation achieved to this date is remarkable, notwithstanding the fact that it was terminated by the Soviet occupation of 1940, and was only resumed after the re-establishment of the state in 1990.
The Netherlands and other Western nations never recognized Soviet occupation of Lithuania of 1940-1990. It was an important expression of solidarity with Lithuanians who continued resistance to the Soviet rule. It is quite striking, that even during this period the diplomatic network of the independent Lithuania was continuously functioning with diplomatic posts to the Holly Sea, in Washington and London. This represented continuation of the state. Also, it showed dedication of Lithuanian diplomats of that period, and set high moral standard to the colleagues who joined diplomatic community after 1990.
Today the Netherlands is one of leading trade partners of Lithuania. 20 per cent of cargo handled by the Lithuanian Klaipėda sea port is forwarded via Rotterdam. The Netherlands is also second largest investor in Lithuania and second destination for Lithuanian investments. Dutch investors avail of favourable Lithuanian business climate and are increasingly active across number of sectors, including information and telecommunications technologies, pharmaceuticals and others. Also recently a number of innovative small and medium size Dutch technology companies opened up their businesses in Lithuania.
The area of particular interest of co-operation is energy. As legacy of the past, Lithuania was heavily depended of energy supplies from external actors, who also used their monopoly position for political ends. Therefore, diversification of supply sources for electricity and gas, as well as integration with EU infrastructure networks, was national priority since early 1990s. In 2014 LNG terminal was docked at the Klaipėda port.
The construction of this terminal has significantly changed supply situation and was shaping the dynamics of the Baltic regional gas market. This is genuinely regional infrastructure with capacity of supplying also regional needs. A number of enterprises deliver gas to the Klaipėda LNG, most recently also US and Dutch companies. In this context, there are many opportunities for further bilateral co-operation on technological innovation, research and business practices. These venues of co-operation were already addressed at the 3rd Lithuanian-Netherlands Gas Forum in Vilnius this November.
As to the broader EU agenda, in many respects Lithuania and the Netherlands hold similar view on most important issues. I believe that both countries would like to see that the EU develops in consolidated way, effectively delivers on the most pressing priorities by making full use of instruments provided by the current Treaties.
Lithuania favours removing remaining restrictions in the EU internal market, notably for services and energy, and pressing forward with the creation of digital single market. We should also work to complete the Banking Union and the Capital Markets Union of the Economic and Monetary Union. We need to continue addressing migration, border protection and security. EU has to pursue effective external policies, especially towards EU’s immediate neighbourhood. In particular, Lithuania and the Netherlands should continue explore ways to join efforts in supporting EU-related reforms of EU Eastern Partners.
In recent years Lithuania and the Netherlands stepped up co-operation in security and defence, especially in NATO framework, in response to security challenges for the Alliance. The Netherlands contributed to the NATO Baltic Air Policing, and since 2017 Dutch contingent is deployed as part of NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence battalion battle group in Lithuania. Countries also work both bilaterally, in EU and NATO, on addressing hybrid security risks, such as cyber, propaganda and others.
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Photography by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania.
A unique exposition in the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam until March 25th 2018.By John Dunkelgrün.
Salomon (1917-1943), perhaps the least known of the great 20th century painters has produced an absolutely unique oeuvre. It comprises some 1600 paintings and gouaches that depict her life story. Her work cannot be properly understood without knowing that life story. While many of her works show her to be very much part of the mid 20th century art scene, it is as a total story that her work has unique value.
She was born into a wealthy family in Berlin. Her father was a famous doctor, who is credited with the invention of the mammogram. The family was at the center of Berlin’s cultural life and she grew up in a huge and fashionable apartment surrounded by servants. However, there was a deep dark streak in the family with her aunt, her mother and much later her grandmother committing suicide.
Her father remarried a well known contralto four years after his wife’s death. Meanwhile Charlotte (as she is generally known) had developed a love for art. In 1935 she was, surprisingly for a Jew at the time, admitted to Berlin’s Academy of arts, because “her character was so modest and reserved, it would not pose a threat to male Aryan students”. Nevertheless, when she won first prize in a blind competition, the prize was given to a fellow student and she had to leave the Academy.
Meanwhile her stepmother had engaged a voice teacher who became Charlotte’s tutor and first lover. After 1933 the family’s social life steadily shrank and the mortal menace of the Nazi regime started to sink in. Following Kristallnacht in 1938 her parents sent her to stay with her grandparents in Villefranche sur Mer in the South of France.
There, a year later her grandmother tried to hang herself. They had moved from Villefranche to a small apartment in Nice, where her grandmother succeeded in her quest for death by jumping out of the 3rd floor window. Her grandfather then told her about the family history of suicides. This weighed heavily upon her and together with her experience in Berlin it caused her extreme anxiety.
A doctor, Dr. Georges Moridis, suggested she started painting her experiences as therapy. This she did in a complete frenzy, painting day and night, hardly eating or sleeping.
Her visa required that she be the caretaker of her grandfather, who started to make ever stronger sexual demands of her. This became so unbearable that she decided to kill him by spiking his omelette with Veronal.
The murder was not detected, but she wrote about it and even painted the man while he was dying. Meanwhile she had married Alexander Nagler, a Jewish refugee from Romania from whom she expected a child.
Then in 1943 after the Germans had occupied Vichy France as well and demanded that all Jews register, Charlotte packed all her works in brown paper and handed them to Dr. Morides with a plea to take good care of them, as they “contained her whole life”. Then she and her husband registered as Jews rather than go into hiding, perhaps as her own act of suicide. They were taken to the infamous transition camp of Drancy and hence to Auschwitz where they were both murdered.
Ironically her parents survived, hiding out in The Netherlands. Dr. Morides duly gave them the packages for which they had six red boxes especially made. It would be years and years before they decided to share them with the world. The current exposition in the JHM is the first that shows all her gouaches, some 800 of them, in chronological order. It is an incredible visible history of a family caught in the most calamitous episode of the 20th century.
It shows the coming of age of a young woman in a family slowly squeezed out of a charmed cultured life. It shows her development as an artist, and early love for her tutor. It depicts her exile in France and the unbearable weight of her family history. As such, while most of the works are of great artistic merit in themselves, it is a a totality that it is an absolutely unique word of art.
Note from the author: For this article I have drawn extensively on the July 2017 New Yorker article by Toni Bentley.
On the picture: Owners Rik and Henriëtte Priester with Marit Bouwmeester (m) worldchampion sailing 2017.
When you enter Absolutely Fit you are welcomed in a motivating, personal and challenging environment.
This gym is open to every individual who wants to work on their body fitness. It’s also a National Trainings Center (NTC) for high performance athletes in the area and is equipped with professional and Olympic weight lifting material.
Whatever goals you set for yourself, Absolutely Fit is the place to make them happen. Cardio, weightlifting, core strength, general fitness, losing weight, gaining muscle; everything is possible here! After your work-out there is the possibility to enjoy the sauna or solarium and finish your healthy day with a good cup of coffee or juice.
The contract system is ideal for customers who participate on a regular base, since you can start and stop your contract each month, a flexible service that distinguishes Absolutely Fit!
Get in Touch
Adress: Dr. Lelykade 240, Scheveningen
Tel: 070 358 77 81
E-mail: info@absolutely-fit.nl
Opening hours: mon-fri. 8:15 am – 22:00 pm, sat and sun 8:30 am – 15:00 pm
In recent years Toneelgroep Amsterdam has put on stage three novels of Louis Couperus. This season the complete trilogy – Small souls, The things that pass and The hidden force – can be seen in Amsterdam. The rerun of The hidden force will take place from 9 until 22 December.
1900, Java. Otto van Oudijck governs his province with vigour. He sees himself as the representative of a superior European culture. He lives for his work. For the colony, which he wants to bring to a higher level. He is oblivious to the fact that his wife is having affairs with other men. But when Van Oudijck dismisses a local regent for misconduct, mysterious things start to happen in his house and around him.
The hidden force is an enthralling story about the misunderstandings and incomprehension between cultures, as well as between close relatives. The downfall of Otto van Oudijck makes us painfully aware of the impossibility to fully understand others.
On Thursdays Toneelgroep Amsterdam provides English surtitles (Projected English translation) in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam.
On 3 November 2017, the Japanese government announced the foreign recipients of the 2017 Autumn Conferment Decorations. Two Dutch citizens will receive a decoration for their contribution to the promotion of Dutch-Japanese relations.
Dr. J.A. (Joop)Stam, Professor Emeritus of Erasmus University Rotterdam and University of Twente, will receive the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon. This is in recognition of his significant contribution to developing Japanese studies and promoting better understanding of Japan in the Netherlands.
Mr. C.J. (Cor) Nolten, a former staff member of the Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands, will receive the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Silver Rays. With this decoration the Japanese Government recognises his significant contribution to the Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands.
ICTY and MICT Prosecutor Serge Brammertz will be in Belgrade on 1 and 2 November, as part of preparations for his regular biannual reports to the UN Security Council (UNSC), due to be presented in December.
The Prosecutor will meet with President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Snežana Stanojković. Additionally, he will meet with members of the diplomatic community. With the ICTY closing at the end of this year, the Office of the Prosecutor of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (OTP MICT) will take over the remaining tasks of the OTP ICTY.
MICT Prosecutor Serge Brammertz will continue to submit a progress report to the UNSC every six months.
On the picture HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of Bahrain, former German President Christian Wulff, HM Queen Mathilde of the Belgians, HM Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.By Henri Estramant.26 October 2017, Bangkok, Kingdom of Thailand: One year after the enlightenment of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) of Thailand, cremation and funerary rituals for the erstwhile longest reigning monarch were complete at the Grand Palace, after five days of national mourning and ceremonies to celebrate the late king’s life.Presiding over the Buddhist ceremonies and the cremation was his only son and successor, HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun (Rama X). Subsequently the ashes of King Rama IX were transferred by the Sovereign to a Buddhist temple holding the mortal remains of members of the Chakri Dynasty. Whereas his bones remain in a separate urn at a private hall inside the Grand Palace. The Royal Crematorium site for the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej is seen near the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand October 20, 2017. Picture taken October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Athit PerawongmethaKing Bhumibol Adulyadej was 88 years old at the time of his enlightenment, and reigned for over 70 years. According to tradition the spirit of the Hindu deity Rama inhabits the reigning Thai monarch’s body. The cremation paves the way for King Vajiralongkorn’s coronation. The funeral ceremonies were attended by royalty, heads of state and government as well as their representatives from around the globe. From the Benelux countries, HM Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, HM Queen Mathilde of the Belgians and HRH The Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg attended. Germany was represented by former President Christian Wulff and France by erstwhile Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. For further information:Funeral cremation’s official website: http://kingrama9.net/en/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWhz1Qs2pPY
Meanwhile her stepmother had engaged a voice teacher who became Charlotte’s tutor and first lover. After 1933 the family’s social life steadily shrank and the mortal menace of the Nazi regime started to sink in. Following Kristallnacht in 1938 her parents sent her to stay with her grandparents in Villefranche sur Mer in the South of France.
There, a year later her grandmother tried to hang herself. They had moved from Villefranche to a small apartment in Nice, where her grandmother succeeded in her quest for death by jumping out of the 3rd floor window. Her grandfather then told her about the family history of suicides. This weighed heavily upon her and together with her experience in Berlin it caused her extreme anxiety.
A doctor, Dr. Georges Moridis, suggested she started painting her experiences as therapy. This she did in a complete frenzy, painting day and night, hardly eating or sleeping.
Her visa required that she be the caretaker of her grandfather, who started to make ever stronger sexual demands of her. This became so unbearable that she decided to kill him by spiking his omelette with Veronal.
The murder was not detected, but she wrote about it and even painted the man while he was dying. Meanwhile she had married Alexander Nagler, a Jewish refugee from Romania from whom she expected a child.
Then in 1943 after the Germans had occupied Vichy France as well and demanded that all Jews register, Charlotte packed all her works in brown paper and handed them to Dr. Morides with a plea to take good care of them, as they “contained her whole life”. Then she and her husband registered as Jews rather than go into hiding, perhaps as her own act of suicide. They were taken to the infamous transition camp of Drancy and hence to Auschwitz where they were both murdered.
Ironically her parents survived, hiding out in The Netherlands. Dr. Morides duly gave them the packages for which they had six red boxes especially made. It would be years and years before they decided to share them with the world. The current exposition in the JHM is the first that shows all her gouaches, some 800 of them, in chronological order. It is an incredible visible history of a family caught in the most calamitous episode of the 20th century.
It shows the coming of age of a young woman in a family slowly squeezed out of a charmed cultured life. It shows her development as an artist, and early love for her tutor. It depicts her exile in France and the unbearable weight of her family history. As such, while most of the works are of great artistic merit in themselves, it is a a totality that it is an absolutely unique word of art.
Note from the author: For this article I have drawn extensively on the July 2017 New Yorker article by Toni Bentley. 
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