arizona republicsat, october 30, 1999
museum looks at the dark side
details 'witches' in Netherlands
Kelly Nickell Associated Press
NIJMEGEN, Netherlands - In the musty recesses of a medieval battle tower, every hour is the witching hour.
The De Stratemakerstoren Museum, tucked away in the turret of a 16th- century garrison, is conjuring up images of a dark era for the Dutch: the executions of scores of alleged witches in the 1400s and 1500s, many of them guilty of nothing more than eccentricity.
And although Holland doesn't celebrate Halloween, the museum's latest exhibition also chronicles the resurgence of witchcraft in modem society.
But with skulls and rat bones, broomsticks and potion bottles, Hansel and, Gretel would not be tempted to enter this eerie lair. Devices similar to those used in the infamous witch trials adorn the display: hot poking irons, swords, daggers and a red carved torture table.
A cold breeze moves through the museum, snaking up from ancient crevices, filling the exhi-. bition hall and adding a chill befitting the haunting tales.
Sander van Loenen, the first accused witch to be killed in Holland, was burned at the stake in 1469 on the outskirts of Nijmegen, about 70 miles southeast of Amsterdam.
"He was the first," said museum director Wim de Mul, shaking his head slowly. "He was burned because people believed that burning cleansed the soul. But they always did it outside of town, so the witch's ashes wouldn't 'fall on the city and influence others."
Whether van Loenen or the others executed as witches actually dabbled in the dark side is unclear. As in the United States and other parts of Europe, plenty of innocent, if peculiar, people were caught up in witch hunts.
"They were misunderstood," de Mul said. "Times were hard then. There were diseases, the plague, crops were bad. People thought nature was angry with them, and
they needed someone to blame." In the Netherlands, the horned hunting god worshiped in the early 1400s became a symbol of the devil early in the next century. Eccentrics were branded as witches and carried the burden of a sweeping paranoia. Drawings, at the museum show ordinarylooking peasant women, sentenced to death for witchcraft, being tied to the stake or bound in preparation for drowning.
Once accused, neither confessions nor denials could prevent their fate.
"If they said they were guilty, they were still killed," de Mul said. "Admitting guilt only meant less torture. They couldn't win either way."
Little is known about those killed in the Dutch witch trials, not even the exact number tried. Much of the documented evidence was destroyed, de Mul said.
But as movies like The Blair Witch Project and The Craft help cultivate a renewed interest in witching ways, it's clear that history hasn't seen its last witch yet.
"People aren't satisfied anymore with their religions, their symbols," de Mul said. "They're, going back to the older signs of nature. You can see its happening all over the world. Witches are coming back."