But the spirit of Waterloo Square, and the Jewish peddlers who once bought and sold odd lots in many cities, can still be found elsewhere in Amsterdam — if you know where to look.

Today, it dwells inside a tennis court-sized warehouse owned by a 41-year-old Jewish businessman named Gideon Italiaander, who started a successful chain of Dutch thrift stores.

A high school dropout from a family traumatised by the Holocaust, Italiaander heads one of the Dutch capital’s most popular home design shops, which thrived during the Covid-19 pandemic largely because of donations by its loyal customer base.

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