The Holocaust saw the mass murder of Dutch Jews by Nazi Germany in occupied Netherlands during the Second World War. The Nazi occupation in 1940 immediately began disrupting the norms of Dutch society, separating Dutch Jews in multiple ways from the general Dutch population. The Nazis used existing Dutch civil administration as well as the Dutch Jewish Council "as an invaluable means to their end".Romijn, Peter, "The Experience of the Jews in the Netherlands during the German Occupation" in Dutch Jewry: Its History and Secular Culture, 1500-2000. Leiden: Brill 2002, 269
Some 75% of the Dutch-Jewish population was killed in the Holocaust, an unusually high percentage compared to other occupied countries in western Europe..For more recent publications, see: Pim Griffioen and Ron Zeller, "Comparison of the Persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands, France and Belgium, 1940–1945: Similarities, Differences, Causes", in: Peter Romijn et al., The Persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands, 1940–1945. New Perspectives. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press/Vossius Pers/NIOD, 2012, 55–91. Pim Griffioen and Ron Zeller, "Anti-Jewish Policy and Organization of the Deportations in France and the Netherlands, 1940–1944: A Comparative Study", Holocaust and Genocide Studies 20 (3), Winter 2006, 437–473. There is debate among scholars about the extent to which the Dutch public was aware of the Holocaust. Postwar Netherlands has grappled with constructing the historical memory of the Holocaust and created monuments memorialising this chapter of Dutch history. The Dutch National Holocaust Museum opened in March 2024. National Holocaust Museum, Amsterdam accessed 9 March 2024
Background
Jews began settling in the Netherlands from the 17th century, where they benefited from the Dutch tradition of religious tolerance, especially in Amsterdam. In 1796 and 1834, Jewish emancipation laws granted full citizenship to Dutch Jews. From the late nineteenth century until the 1930s, Dutch Jews became increasingly secularised and integrated into Dutch society. Many no longer observed Jewish religious or cultural practices or lived in Jewish communities. While Dutch society formed segments or "pillars" in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Jews were not a separate pillar, but rather tended to be affiliated with existing pillars.
In 1939 the Jewish population of the Netherlands was between 140,000 and 150,000, 24,000–34,000 of whom were refugees from Germany and German-controlled areas. That year, the Committee for Jewish Refugees established the Westerbork transit camp to process incoming refugees—the German occupiers would later repurpose it to process outgoing Jews to labour and concentration camps. About half of the total Jewish population—about 79,000—lived in Amsterdam.
Occupation
The neutrality of the Netherlands did not protect it from the Nazi invasion of May 1940. Over the next two years, the German occupiers worked with the existing Dutch bureaucracy to gain control of the administrative system to implement its own policy aims. Rather than leaving the Dutch government independent or setting up a military occupation, the Nazis' plan for the Netherlands involved implementing a civil occupation. Leaders appointed by the Germans to head the civil administration of the Netherlands were all Nazis with a strong ideological history. Hitler's representative, the Austrian Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart, quickly took command of the Dutch administrative system as the Reichskommissar for the occupied Dutch territories. Hanns Albin Rauter was appointed the Higher SS and Police Chief (HSSPF). Rauter reported directly to Heinrich Himmler.Romijn, Peter, Bart Van Der Boom, Pim Griffioen, Ron Zeller, Marieke Meeuwenoord, and Johannes Houwink Ten Cate. The Persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands, 1940–1945: New Perspectives; ed. By Wichert ten Have. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University PR, 2012.
A key aim was to separate Dutch Jews from their legal protections and Dutch cultural milieu, extinguishing first their rights and then their lives.Romijn, Peter. "The Experience of the Jews in the Netherlands during the German Occupation" in Dutch Jewry: Its History and Secular Culture, 1500-2000. Jonathan I. Israel and Reiner Salverda. Leiden: Brill 2002, 253-271 One of Rauter's first initiatives involved consolidating the Dutch police under the Nazi-controlled Ministry of Justice. Rauter positioned the SS and the police to have full authority over the entire Jewish population of the occupied Netherlands. This gave the SS and the police the ability to persecute Jews in the Netherlands, and eventually implement the Final Solution. Rauter had not only the Dutch police, but 4,700 German police personnel at his disposal.
Registration
German authorities issued a series of increasingly strict regulations to isolate and exclude Jews from the general Dutch population, a key factor in the policies leading to the genocide. Dutch Jews overwhelmingly complied with registration.
Immediately after occupation in May 1940, all businesses directed by a Jew or owned in whole or part by Jews (including Jewish shareholders) were required to register with the government. The relevant law defined a Jew as any person who had three or more Jewish grandparents; who had two Jewish grandparents and belonged to a Jewish congregation; or who was married to a Jew. As Jacob Presser commented, "registration had come to mean compulsory submission of a complete personal history."Presser, Jacob. Ashes in the Wind: The Destruction of Dutch Jewry. London 1965, pp. 33-36
In October 1940, Dutch authorities required all civil servants to sign a “Declaration of Aryan Descent” that neither they, their spouse, nor their parents or grandparents were “part of the Jewish faith.” The following month, summary dismissals of Jewish public servants began, including Lodewijk Visser, president of the Dutch Supreme Court. Over 2,500 Jews lost their public positions.Romijn. "The War" in The History of Jews in the Netherlands, edited by J.C.H. Bloom, R.G. Fuks-Mansfeld, and I. Schoffer, Uitgeverij Balans, 1996. Translated by The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2002. Schoffer, Uitgeverij Balans, 1996. Translated by The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2002. Only the forced removal of Dutch Jews from secondary and higher education incited a response from the public.
On 10 January 1941, Seyss-Inquart mandated the registration of all Jewish citizens and expanded the definition of a Jew, with one Jewish grandparent sufficing. Despite sporadic refusals, about 160,000 registered, receiving a black “J” stamp in their identity cards. These cards—required to be carried at all times—were nearly impossible to forge, and a useful tool for the perpetrator to distinguish who was Jewish. Similarly, the birth, death, and marriage records of Jews in the Netherlands were marked to distinguish them from the non-Jewish citizenry. From 5 May 1942, Jews were forced to wear a yellow star on their clothing.
Onderduikers Like in other occupied countries, attempts were made to hide Jews and other wanted people from German authorities. The geography of the Netherlands made this difficult, since the country is less than 20,000 square miles of flatlands. About 25–30,000 Jews went into hiding as onderduikers (literally “under-divers”)—most famously Anne Frank, who hid with her family in an Amsterdam house from July 1942 for over two years. At a vacation home called “The High Nest” near Naarden, a succession of Jews and other fugitives lived in secrecy from January 1943. Coincidentally, both hiding places were discovered in August 1944, and members of each household met as they were deported to Westerbork and then Auschwitz.
Many non-Jewish Netherlanders helped to hide Jews, often individually in exchange for payment. Two of the most active helpers were Corrie Ten Boom and Henriëtte Pimentel, both of whom were eventually arrested and deported themselves. Another notable person was Leendert Overduin, a Dutch Reformed Church pastor who ran Group Overduin that helped about 1,000 Jews to find hiding places. 21 Dutch people have been awarded the Jewish Rescuers Citation by B’nai B’rith for helping to save Jews from deportation.
The onderduikers in turn drove a reward system for “Jew-hunters”—notably the Henneicke Column, originally a group tasked with inventorying abandoned Jewish properties, which became a bounty-hunting operation. The Henneicke Column delivered 8,000-9,000 Jews to Nazi authorities between March and October 1943 alone, earning up to 15 guilders per head.
Of the onderduikers, about a third were caught and deported. Some were betrayed by friends, or strangers who agreed to hide them under false pretenses. Others were caught by the police. Of the 15–20,000 who survived, 4,000 were young children.
Expropriation and theft
Before being deported and murdered, Dutch Jews were systematically stripped of all of their properties and possessions, including businesses, real estate, financial assets, artworks and household possessions. Gerard Aalders, a Dutch researcher at the Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation, estimated that the Dutch Jewish community was "the most affected by German rapacity".
Looting organisations included the Dienststelle Mühlmann, headed by Kajetan Mühlmann under Seyss-Inquart, and Lippmann & Rosenthal & Co. (or "LiRo"), a Jewish bank that the Nazis took over to disguise theft as legal transactions. The occupiers documented confiscation and re-sale in a set of Verkaufsbücher ("sales books") which are today owned by the Dutch National Archive.
Deportations
Like other occupied countries, The Netherlands was required to deport a quota of Jews to Germany for war labor. The residency status of Jews in the Netherlands was irrelevant to German authorities; Seyss-Inquart stated "The Jews, for us, are not Dutchmen. They are those enemies with whom we can come neither to an armistice nor to a peace."
In January 1942—the same month as the Wannsee Conference, where the Holocaust was largely strategized—all Jews in The Netherlands were “evacuated” to the three Jewish districts of Amsterdam. On 25 March, “mixed marriages” were disallowed to close a loophole that exempted Jews from deportation. From 5 May, Jews were required to wear the yellow badge for identification.
Deportations officially began on 15 July 1942, when the first two trains departed Amsterdam Centraal station for Westerbork transit camp, the first of about 140 “Jew trains” operated by Dutch railways. From then until September 1944, the camp would deport approximately 100,000 Jews to concentration camps, almost all of whom were eventually killed.
The initial demand for 15,000 deportees per year could be met with foreign-born Jews, but when Germany increased the quota to 40,000, it became necessary to deport Dutch Jews as well. The Jewish Council was informed on 26 June 1942 that all Jews between ages 16 and 40 would be deported to Germany for labor, with a requirement to produce 800 names per day. The first notices were sent on 5 July, causing a scramble for exemptions and deferments. One day prior, German authorities rounded up 700 Jews at random, including children and babies. This group was held as hostages to enforce the order.
Rauter sent progress letters to Himmler, informing him in September 1942 that "In all of Holland some 120,000 Jews [including "mixed Jews"] are being readied for departure."
Below are a sample of deportations from The Netherlands to labor and extermination camps.Gerhard Hirschfeld, "Niederlande", in Dimension des Völkermords: Die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus, ed. Wolfgang Benz (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1991), 165.