The course of events in Germany in the 1930s – the seizure of power by Adolf Hitler, the rising anti-Semitism, and Kristallnacht – did not escape the notice of the Dutch Jews. Many believed, however, that they were safe in the neutral Netherlands, and that such atrocities could not possibly happen in this country.
Even though the NSB, the national-socialist movement of Anton Mussert, received 8 percent of the votes cast in the 1935 elections, the party was not particularly anti-Semitic at the time. By the time the NSB became truly anti-Semitic, its support had dwindled. While anti-Semitic slurs and remarks were uttered daily in the Netherlands, explicit anti-Semitism never acquired strong political support.
After the Nazi takeover in 1933 and especially after the Kristallnacht from 9 to 10 November 1938, many Jews tried to flee Germany. The Dutch government tried to keep Jewish refugees out through rigid border control and a stringent policy on expulsion and employment permits intended to minimize their number. Approximately 20,000 Jews were admitted on the condition that the Jewish community support them. The committee for Jewish refugees run by David Cohen was responsible for this relief effort. The cost of setting up the refugee camp Westerbork, which the Dutch government had built especially for this group in Drente, was billed to the Jewish community.
For additional information about the committee for Jewish refugees, see the Theme Jewish Social Services.
On 10 May 1940 Nazi troops invaded the Netherlands. About 140,000 Jews lived in the Netherlands at the time. In the upheaval surrounding the invasion, several Jews – probably around a few hundred – crossed the Channel to England. Smaller numbers reached Spain via France. Others resorted to suicide.
The Dutch army capitulated after five days. On 29 May 1940 Hitler appointed Reichskommissar Arthur Seyss-Inquart as head of the Reichskommissariat, which was the Nazi civil administration in the occupied Netherlands.
Aryan attestations and dismissal from civil service
In the autumn of 1940 came the first of many measures designed to distinguish and isolate the Jews in the Netherlands from the rest of the population.
All civil servants, including schoolteachers, were required to sign an Aryan attestation by 26 October. Those who refused were dismissed. Once all Jewish civil servants had been identified through this procedure, they started to be dismissed from government service in November. This happened quietly in most cases. At a few schools the students boycotted classes to protest the dismissal of their Jewish teachers, and university students and instructors voiced their disapproval of the measure as well. Professor Rudolph Cleveringa at Leiden University delivered a famous speech protesting the dismissal of his Jewish colleague Professor E. M. Meijers. These acts called attention to the anti-Semitic measures, although the measures themselves were not repealed.
Registration of Jewish civil servants was followed from 22 October 1940 by compulsory registration of all Jewish-owned businesses and firms. All Jews were subject to the sweeping consequences of the regulation that Seyss-Inquart proclaimed on 10 January 1941: all ‘persons of partial or complete Jewish heritage’ had to register. ‘Jewish’ was defined on racial grounds and comprised the categories ‘full Jews’, ‘half Jews’, and ‘quarter Jews.’ Dutch municipal authorities were instructed to enforce this measure, which coincided with the requirement that all Dutch people carry the new identity card (persoonsbewijs). Jews had to complete and submit a questionnaire and received proof of registration, upon payment of one guilder. The registration forms were sent to the state inspectorate of the population registers.
Nearly all Jews completed the registration forms. Non-compliance was subject to up to five years imprisonment. Moreover, the data requested was already listed in the population register and the records of the Jewish community.
Later in the occupation the Nazis progressively isolated Jews from non-Jews. Several Dutch organizations initiated such measures independently earlier on. Dutch cinemas and many associations and employers banned Jews at their own initiative. The Dutch national socialists called for more comprehensive measures.
The Weerafdeling (WA) of the NSB forced hotel and restaurant owners in The Hague, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam to display signs indicating that Jewish patrons were not wanted. On 8 February 1941 riots erupted on the Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam during a fight between WA members and café owners. The next day cafés and dance halls were the site of WA brutalities. On 11 February the WA entered the Jewish neighbourhood, where they met with resistance from Jewish and non-Jewish residents, aided by workers from other districts. While fighting a mob, WA member Hendrik Koot sustained serious injuries and died three days later.
The Jewish neighbourhood was sealed off temporarily following the riots. Dr. Hans Böhmcker, Seyss-Inquart’s special commissioner for Amsterdam and in charge of anti-Semitic measures, summoned a few prominent Jews in Amsterdam and instructed them to form a Jewish Council as a coordinating liaison between the Nazis and the Jewish community. The Jewish Council became responsible for conveying the anti-Semitic measures. By entrusting the Council with a form of self-administration, the Nazi forces gave the impression that the body was in a position to influence the course of events. The chairmen of the Jewish Council, David Cohen and Abraham Asscher, had held high offices in the pre-war Jewish community and felt responsible for chairing the Jewish Council and following Nazi orders ‘to avert worse’.
Over time most existing Jewish organizations were prohibited. Jewish periodicals were discontinued as well. The Jewish Council assumed many of the tasks of the former organizations and issued the censored Het Joodsche Weekblad. Anti-Semitic measures were communicated in this weekly without being disclosed to the non-Jewish population.
The Council became increasingly important in Jewish life, for example in education and social work. In October 1941 the Nazi forces expanded the duties of the Jewish Council to include all of the Netherlands. Local chapters were opened in various places.
The actions of the Jewish Council elicited vehement objections, both during the war on the part of the Jews and the resistance and after the war from historians. A post-war honorary council barred Asscher and Cohen from holding office within the Jewish community for the rest of their lives.
Not all sections of the Jewish Council adopted the same position: the Jewish Council in Enschede figured prominently in the resistance against the persecution of the Jews.
For additional information, see the website about the Jewish Council in Enschede: www.joodscheraadenschede.nl.
On 19 February 1941 the Grüne Polizei raided IJssalon Koco on the Van Woustraat in Amsterdam. Ernst Cahn and Alfred Kohn, two Jewish refugees from Germany, ran this ice cream parlour, where Jewish gangs met. During the raid one of the owners sprayed a bottle of ammonia at the attackers. The Grüne Polizei opened fire, stormed the shop and arrested the fugitive owners later that evening. Kohn died following deportation. Cahn was executed on 3 March 1941.
Heinrich Himmler ordered immediate retaliation: 425 Jews were to be arrested. The first raid occurred in the Jewish neighbourhood on 22 February. The quarter was sealed off, and the Grüne Polizei dragged young men from the street and broke down doors in their search for victims. Women and children were beaten. The next day the activities were repeated, until there were ‘enough’ victims. The men arrested were taken to an internment camp at Schoorl and subsequently – except for a few who were sick – transported to Mauthausen via Buchenwald. Three survived the war.
On Tuesday 25 February 1941 the employees of the municipal transport company and other public services laid down their work to protest the raids. A group of communist workers initiated the strike and was soon joined by the metal workers and dockworkers (who had staged a strike during the preceding months to protest forced labour in Germany). When the streetcars stopped running, other workers in Amsterdam knew there was a strike. Some followed suit. The next day the strikes spread to the Zaanstreek, Kennemerland (Haarlem and Velsen), Hilversum, Utrecht, and Weesp.
Taken by surprise, the Nazis declared a state of emergency and cracked down. Police and SS troops were deployed. Some patrols fired at the strikers, killing at least seven on the second day of the strike. On Thursday 27 February at noon the strike ended.
The strike was an act of protest by the non-Jewish population against the anti-Jewish measures (the first and largest demonstration of its kind in Western Europe) and against Nazi oppression in general. The strike did not lead the Nazis to reconsider their plans but made them aware that they needed to be more cautious in implementing anti-Semitic measures, and that the Dutch national socialists would need to be restrained.
For additional information about the February strike, see: www.februaristaking.nl.
During the months following the February strike, the Nazis gradually imposed a host of measures that isolated Jews from the rest of the population in increasing measure. Jews were banned from swimming pools, public gardens, zoos, markets, hotels, cafés, theatres, cabaret and concert halls, and libraries. Signs reading ‘No Jews allowed’ appeared everywhere. Jews were expelled from associations, had to turn in their radios, and were no longer allowed to travel without permits. In addition, a separate, highly restrictive environment was temporarily created for them.
Increasingly, the isolation from non-Jews was extended from adults to children and adolescents: on 1 September 1941 (on 1 October in Amsterdam) Jewish children were forced to transfer from their regular schools to separate ones.
Economic opportunities for Jews were progressively curtailed as well. In March shops and businesses owned by Jews were expropriated and entrusted to a Verwalter [supervisor]. Jewish physicians, pharmacists, translators, lawyers, and real estate agents were no longer permitted to serve non-Jews.
Systematic looting of Jewish property began as well. Between 8 and 11 August 1941, Jews were required to register and surrender their cash, cheques, securities, and other assets at the Lippmann-Rosenthal Bank (Liro). On 15 September they were ordered to register their land and real estate there in preparation for expropriation. In October all operations at firms under Jewish ownership became subject to conditions and permits. Employers were authorized to give Jewish employees three months notice and to revise their pension plans. During the months following this decree, many Jews were dismissed from their jobs and had their work permits revoked.
From January 1942 unemployed Jews (who were by then quite numerous as a result of all the restrictions) were sent to Jewish forced labour camps. The Jewish Council disclosed the names and addresses of unemployed Jews.
In addition to the unemployed, people with jobs were affected. All non-Dutch Jews were deported to Westerbork. All Dutch Jews had to move to Amsterdam. The first towns ‘evacuated’ were Zaandam and Hilversum, where Jewish residents had to surrender the keys to their houses to the police, after which the Hausraterfassungsstelle registered their possessions. This was a subdivision of the Zentralstelle für Jüdische Auswanderung established in March 1941. The Nazis had opened this office in Amsterdam to prepare and carry out the deportations. The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg then looted the possessions from the homes of the ‘evacuated’ Jews with assistance from Dutch movers, such as Puls. The household effects of 25,000 homes were shipped to Germany and distributed to people whose homes had been bombed. Some of the household effects were sold in the Netherlands. The empty houses were let to Dutch people. Nazis and Dutch Nazi sympathizers moved into the most elegant homes.
On 11 June 1941 the Nazis conducted a raid in the South of Amsterdam, invoking acts of sabotage as justification. Hoping to avert an outcry like the one like the one in February, Willy Lages had the victims fetched from their homes instead of pulled from the streets. Under false pretexts he asked the Jewish Council for a list of names and addresses of the young people training at the Wieringermeer Jewish labour settlement, who had been summoned to Amsterdam in March 1941. The impression was that those summoned would be allowed to return to the Wieringermeer. Many trainees were suspicious and went into hiding. As a result, the quota was not met, and cafés and Jewish sports clubs were raided as well. On 14 September raids took place in Twente (see and listen to www.joodscheraadenschede.nl). Once again, various acts of sabotage were invoked to order the arrest of 110 Jewish citizens. Two weeks later, the entire group was deported to Mauthausen. Three weeks later, on 7 and 8 October, similar raids were conducted in the Achterhoek (the east of the Dutch province of Gelderland).
From the autumn of 1940 all individuals were required to carry an Identity card, and from January 1942 the Nazis used these cards to verify identities. Jews received identity cards with a large black J stamped on them, so that they could be singled out during inspections. In March 1942 the Nuremberg racial laws, which were already largely applicable in the Netherlands, were introduced in their entirety here. Marriages and sexual intercourse became prohibited between Jews and non-Jews.
The signs reading ‘no Jews allowed’ appeared everywhere at the order of the Reichskommissar. In late April 1942 Jews were required to wear a Yellow Star on their outer clothes to make them easily recognizable. The freedom of movement of Jews was further curtailed when they had to surrender their bicycles and means of transport in June, were no longer allowed to shop at markets (except for special ‘Jewish markets’), and could make purchases at non-Jewish stores only between 3.00 and 5.00 PM.
For additional information on the ‘Jewish markets’, see the text about Jewish market and street vendors on this site. For additional information about the identity cards, see: www.geschiedenis.com
In the summer of 1942 the massive deportations of Jews from the Netherlands began. The schedule for the deportations and the numbers of people to be deported were determined in Berlin by Adolf Eichmann, who – following the death of Reinhard Heydrich in early June 1942 – reported to Heinrich Himmler.
The Zentralstelle staff selected the individuals for the first deportation from the register compiled in 1941. The Jewish Council was instructed to call up all men between 16 and 40 for ‘labour service’ in Germany. Four thousand Jews were required for the first transports, which departed from 14 through 17 July 1942. But hardly anybody responded to the summons. Jews (who had become easy to identify thanks to the Yellow Star) were picked up from the street to fill the quota of 4,000. Jews already at Camp Westerbork were deported to Auschwitz in Poland as well.
In the course of July seven more transports left Amsterdam for Westerbork. While these people were initially told to gather at the Central Station, the venue was later shifted to the Hollandsche Schouwburg (possibly to make the procedure less visible to the rest of the population). As greater numbers of Jews refused to heed the summons, filling the quota imposed from Berlin became impossible. As a result, new raids were held in August. This time, the Nazi police forces were assisted by the Amsterdam police battalion. This specially trained corps comprised Nazi sympathizers from the Dutch police. Streets were sealed off, houses searched, and those found were taken away.
The efforts of the Jewish Council to reduce the number of Jews to be deported were fruitless. The Nazis did, however, allow the Jewish Council to arrange exemptions for Jewish Council staff and others. As soon as the exemption system became known, the Jewish Council was besieged by people hoping to obtain one. The Jewish Council was responsible for selecting the 17,500 staff members to be issued such a stamp. This procedure, and especially the selection criteria applied, were severely criticized after the war on the grounds that the selection was based on nepotism and corruption. In any case, the Sperre system was a highly effective means for the Nazis to divide and conquer. In the course of 1943, each of the exemption lists toppled like a stack of dominoes, as the Nazis proclaimed them invalid. In fact, the lists became an instrument for the Nazis to select certain groups of Jews and their families for deportation.
Besides these exemptions, other groups of Jews were initially exempted from forced labour, such as Jews married to non-Jews, certain categories of foreign Jews, and Jews baptized as Christians prior to 1 January 1941. ‘Economic exemptions’ were granted to those who directly or indirectly contributed to the German war effort. Three hundred diamond merchants and five hundred diamond workers, for example, were selected to manufacture products for Germany. All these individuals received a special seal (Sperre) on their identity papers and were exempt from forced labour ‘until further notice’. Many exempt individuals were persecuted and deported anyway in the course of the war.
Since hardly anybody reported for deportation voluntarily, most Jews were dragged from their beds by the Nazi and Dutch police during night raids. Jewish homes for the elderly were raided and the elderly and sick residents taken away. The pretext of a forced labour selection lost all credibility. Jewish orphanages were ‘emptied’ as well, as were the Jewish labour camps. Relatives of the camp residents were dragged from their homes. On 2 and 3 October 1942 massive raids took place in Amsterdam and the provinces. Nazi and Dutch police, the NSB, the Dutch SS, Nazi officials, and the Zentralstelle staff were all involved. By the end of 1942 approximately 40,000 Dutch Jews had been deported to the death camps in Poland.
In early 1943 Jewish hospitals, orphanages, and sanatoriums were raided. In the night of 21 to 22 January 1943, the Apeldoornsche Bos, a Jewish psychiatric institution on the Veluwe, was ‘emptied’. Aus der Fünten supervised the search of the Apeldoornsche Bos, ordered beatings and abuse of defenceless patients, and had them loaded onto trucks and later cattle cars. The train with patients and nurses headed straight to Auschwitz, where nearly everybody was gassed upon arrival. On 1 March 1943 the Joodsche Invalide, the large Jewish care institution in Amsterdam, was raided. Elderly, infirm, and sick patients were collected and deported by the SS.
Meanwhile, a concentration camp had been built at Vught near ‘s Hertogenbosch to hold political prisoners, criminals, and Jews. Jewish workers from Amsterdam with economic exemptions were the first inmates at Vught. Later, when Rauter expelled all remaining Jews from the provinces, these Jews ended up at Vught as well. The factories on the site suggested that Vught was a labour camp. In the end, all Jewish prisoners were deported from Vught to the East via Westerbork (in some cases directly).
On 29 September 1943 the last raid was conducted in Amsterdam. The Nazis subsequently proclaimed the city judenrein. On 13 September 1944 the last train left Westerbork for Bergen-Belsen. On 12 April 1945, Westerbork was liberated. Among the 876 prisoners who were there at the time, three hundred Jews had remained in the camp after the last transport. All the others had been caught in hiding.
Many Jews tried to escape the deportations. Figuring out which strategy stood the best chance was of course extremely difficult, in the unlikely event that different options were available. Most opted at first for a ‘paper route’ and tried to get their names on a list of people exempted from transport for one reason or another (their Jewish heritage might be questionable, they might pay money, gold, diamonds etc. to get their name on a waiting list for an exit visa). Some lists were compiled in good faith, while others were intended merely to collect bribes.
A few (their number is estimated at 1,800 to 2,700) escaped. The escape route was long and dangerous: across the Channel to England or by land to Spain and Switzerland. These refugees included the Palestine pioneers, who were led across the border by Joop Westerweel. Both Jewish and non-Jewish resistance groups were involved in helping Jewish refugees.
During the long wait at the Hollandsche Schouwburg, some managed to escape with help from others. Babies and small children were kept not at the Schouwburg but at a childcare centre across the street. Since the childcare centre was not under close surveillance, several babies were smuggled out and placed in hiding by members of the resistance. Walter Süskind, a German-Jewish refugee who worked for the Expositur in the Schouwburg, was very important in this effort.
Many went into hiding as a final resort. Finding a place to hide, however, was exceptionally difficult. Those caught hiding Jews risked deportations themselves, which was a price that few were willing to pay. Moreover, going into hiding required more than an address. People going into hiding needed forged identity cards, as well as ration coupons and money to pay for food. Various resistance groups supported those in hiding. While many Jews found places to hide in the north of the Netherlands, they were also taken in by people in South Limburg and elsewhere in the country. Some families sheltered several Jews at once. Altogether, about 24,000 or 25,000 Jews went hiding, including 4,000 children. Around 16,000 or 17,000 survived the war.
Very few indeed (fewer than 5,000) survived the concentration camps.