Five years ago Nazis purged Amsterdam's world-famed Concertgebouw Orchestra of 18 Jewish members, packed them off to a Czechoslovakian concentration camp. Last week 15 of the 18 Jewish musicians were back in their chairs for the symphony's first concert since the liberation.
By way of a prelude, Amsterdamers had done a little Dutch-cleansing of their own, kicking out five Dutch collaborationists. They had also removed the blue paint which the Germans had smeared over the names of "non-Aryan" composers on the concert-hall frieze; now the names of Mendelssohn and Mahler were again visible.
Canadian soldiers on leave joined the Dutch in singing Wilhelmus,...
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