De Dokwerker

De Dokwerker stands in Amsterdam as a bronze and concrete memorial to the February Strike of 1941. Mari Andriessen shaped a standing dock worker, now positioned closer to the synagogue than its original Waterlooplein location. The city unveiled the sculpture in December 1952 after commissioning Andriessen for this public memorial.

Binder foundry in Haarlem cast the bronze, using carpenter and contractor Willem Termetz as the model. Workers across Amsterdam stopped public transport, municipal services, shipbuilding, metal industries, and department stores. The strike began after raids seized 425 young Jewish men and deported them to Mauthausen. German occupiers later suppressed the strike after it spread to surrounding cities.

The base records 25 February 1941 and citizens’ resistance against persecution by German occupiers. Each year, commemorations gather here on 25 February, while demonstrations against racism have also begun or ended here. Andriessen had sheltered Jewish people and stored resistance weapons in his studio. Wheelchair access makes the monument reachable, with its ordinary dock worker remaining a concrete image of collective courage.