Asterdorp
Asterdorp in Amsterdam-North was an emergency village, consisting of homes for inadmissible families, built in 1927. Asterdorp was built on the former industrial estate in the Buiksloterham between the Asterweg and the Distelweg. The complex consisted of 132 homes, far from civilization. A second comparable village was Zeeburgerdorp, in Amsterdam-East.
Residential school
Asterdorp was set up on the initiative of Arie Keppler by the Amsterdam Municipal Housing Service as a residential school, where problem families were housed under supervision and re-educated into model citizens - or at least that was the intention. The municipality housed families here who could not yet be admitted to municipal housing, for example in the Van der Pekbuurt. The intention was that after a period of about a year the family would be ready for that. The residents were monitored by supervisors.
There was a wall around the village with initially only one gate, which could not be closed. In 1932, at the request of the residents, a second entrance was created on the Asterweg and the streets were also given names and house numbers.
Poor families
Mainly poor families from the Jordaan came to live in Asterdorp. Many day laborers with large families. But little came of 're-education'. In reality, Asterdorp changed little about the future prospects of these families. On the other hand, the residents did receive a lifelong stigma. If they told them they lived in Asterdorp, they did not get a job. And if they still had work, they were fired. Despite the idealistic start, the experiment failed completely.
Rotterdammers
In 1940, most of the original residents left, often to Floradorp. After a renovation, Rotterdam residents who had lost their home during the Bombardment of Rotterdam on May 14, 1940 were housed in Asterdorp. After these residents returned to Rotterdam after some time, the German occupiers seized Asterdorp. In the spring of 1941, the last residents of the Asterdorp residential school left.
Jewish ghetto
A year later, the foreign Jews in Het Gooi were told that they had to move to Asterdorp. From January 1942, stateless Jews from Germany, Austria and Poland were also housed there by order of the German occupier. After being deported to Camp Westerbork, Jews from Amsterdam's Rivierenbuurt and other Dutch cities were forced to stay in Asterdorp, until the vast majority of them were also deported to the Transvaal-district (Amsterdam-East) from the summer of 1942, from where they were deported. The ghetto existed for more than a year. The nickname 'Klein Westerbork' dates from this period. This 'fourth ghetto' of Amsterdam was evacuated in early June 1943 and the remaining residents were housed in the Transvaal-district. A total of 307 Jews lived in Asterdorp, 227 of them were murdered. The Dutch Jews were among the last left in Amsterdam.
Documentary maker Saskia van den Heuvel conducted research, spoke to some survivors and thanks to her film The Forgotten Ghetto, Asterdorp was recognized as a ghetto by the German government in 2015.[1]
In recent years
During one of the bombing raids on Amsterdam North in July 1943, Asterdorp was partially destroyed. After the war there was a major housing shortage in the Netherlands. Asterdorp was renovated and given a different name: Tolhuiscomplex. After repairs, the temporary housing was put into use in 1947. The houses were poor, damp and full of mold. Due to the poor living conditions, it was finally demolished in 1955 and the land was designated as an industrial estate.
André Volten
Only the gatehouse at Asterdwarsweg 10 has been preserved. This was used as the workshop of the sculptor André Volten from 1952 until his death in 2002. The artist used the entire building. He transformed the spaces on the ground floor into workshops. He closed the underpass with large metal sliding doors. He painted the outside walls white. The gatehouse has been empty since 2002. In 2016 it was renovated and put into use as 'Atelier Volten'.
Literature
Asterdorp, an Amsterdam history of elevation and humiliation. Author: Stephan Steinmetz. Publisher Atlas Contact; 2016. ISBN 978-90-450-3030-2