Jewish Life in the Netherlands
"The great Jewish presence in the Netherlands began and ended in tragedy." —Jewish Virtual Library

Though Jews were present in the Netherlands and Belgium during the Roman conquest, the first large-scale Sephardic community left Spain and Portugal after being expelled in 1492 as a result of the Inquisition. In the sixteenth century, Portuguese merchants came to Amsterdam, a major commercial center in Europe. Marranos (Jews who hid their religious identity) were among that group. Largely Protestant, the Dutch tolerated Jews in their midst. In 1619, statues regarding the status of Jews were left to individual cities, and many Jews moved to Rotterdam, Alkmaar, Middleburg, and Haarlem. Ashkenazi Jews migrated from Germany to Amsterdam in 1620. Politically and socially, Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews developed separate communities, managed by kehilla (governing bodies). During Holland’s Golden Age, Jews were economically and socially integrated to a higher degree into Dutch society than in other countries. They were especially important in trading, shipping, and the diamond industry. On September 2, 1796, Jews in the Netherlands, influenced by France, were granted emancipation. By the end of the 19th century, most Jews were concentrated in urban areas and were assimilated into the larger Dutch population.

Jewish Life in the Netherlands during World War II
"Few Jews survived in Holland, but those few were saved as a result of the most strenuous efforts, for Holland was the one territory of the occupied West in which the Jews did not have an even chance to live." —Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985)

Of the 140,000 Dutch Jews on the eve of the war (1.6% of the population), 107,000 were deported by the Nazis. Only 5,500 returned to the Netherlands after 1945. Approximately 24,000 Jews went into hiding; 8,000 of those were caught. During the war, nearly 34,000 refugees entered the Netherlands to escape Nazi Germany, including Anne Frank and her family who came from Frankfurt. Many Dutch Jews who were deported from the Netherlands, including Anne Frank and her family, traveled through Westerbork, a transit camp that came under German control in 1943. At the camp, Jews were divided into two categories depending on their ability to work and then sent to camps such as Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Terezin, or Sobibor. More than 100,000 Jews traveled through Westerbork. In September 1944, the transports stopped, and the camp was destroyed by the Allies. All that remains is a memorial center and a monument that is comprised or a piece of the railroad track that has one twisted end pointing to the sky.

• 1939-1940: 34,000 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany enter the Netherlands.
• September 1939: SS security chief Reinhard Heidrich orders the establishment of a Jewish council to obey Nazi demands.
• May 14, 1940: Holland surrenders to Germany, and Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart is appointed Reichkommissar.
• October 1940: Jews are denied promotions or appointments to government jobs. Businesses owned, operated, or with a substantial Jewish investment are registered with the German authorities.
• November 1940: Jewish civil servants are dismissed.
• January 1940: Jews living in Holland are required to register with the German authorities or face a 5-year prison sentence. The Jewish Council (Joodsche Raad) is established to carry out German order as well as to coordinate daily affairs of the community.
• January 14, 1941: Dutch Jews are ordered to move to Amsterdam; refugees from other parts of Europe are sent to Westerbork transit camp.
• March 1941: Germans begin to "Aryanize" Jewish property, and Jews must have special permits from the Jewish Council to travel.
• July 1941: Jews who register with the German authorities have their I.D. cards stamped with a large "J.
• August 1941: Jewish children are barred from school. All Jewish assets are blocked in order to be confiscated.
• May 1942: Jews must wear a yellow star with the word "Jew" printed on it and observe curfews. Public transportation and telephones are off-limits to Jews.
• July 1942: The first deportation train with Jewish passengers leaves Westerbork transit camp for Auschwitz.
• September 1943: In the last major round-up, 5,000 Jews, including the Jewish Council leaders, are sent to Westerbork.
• September 2, 1944: Anne Frank and her family are put on one of the last trains from Westerbork, arriving in Auschwitz three days later.
• April 12, 1945: The remaining 876 Jews in Westerbork are liberated.
• May 1945: The Netherlands is liberated by the Canadian Army.

Jewish Life in the Netherlands after World War II
In 1946, 30,000 Jews (20% of the pre-war population) were left in the Netherlands. Many of those were in mixed marriages. Throughout the post-war period, the numbers continued to decline as a result of low birthrates and large-scale emigration to Israel. Today, the Jewish population in Amsterdam numbers 25,000. In 2005, Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch prime minister, apologized for the country’s collaboration with the Nazis, saying that the wartime government “worked on the horrible process whereby Jews were stripped of their rights.”

Amsterdam’s Holocaust and Jewish Historic Sites
There are various sites in the city that commemorate Jewish life before and during the war:

• Though the Jewish quarter was destroyed during the Nazi period, the Snoga (Sephardic synagogue built in 1672) is still an active congregation.
• A complex of restored synagogues—the Great Shul (1670), the Obbene Shul (1672), the Dritt Shul (1700), and the Neie Shul (1730)—has been renovated and is now part of a complex that houses the Jewish Historical Museum
• The Anne Frank House at 263 Prinsengracht is a museum documenting her life and her family’s time in the secret annex.
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• The Auschwitz Memorial commemorates Jews deported from the Netherlands to Auschwitz.
• The Joods Historical Museum documents Jewish life in Amsterdam and the Netherlands is located at Nieuwe Amstelstraat 1, Amsterdam
• The Hollandsche Schouwberg (a former theater that served as a gathering place from where Jews were deported) is also operated by the Jewish Historical Museum.
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• The Dockworker statue in Jonas Daniel Meijerplein is a statue that honors the general strike of February 25, 1941, when the city protested the Nazi treatment of Dutch Jews.
• Beth Chayim is a Sephardi cemetery that dates from 1614.
• The Dutch Resistance Museum is located at Plantage Kerklaan 61, 1018 CX Amsterdam.

Auschwitz Memorial
Wertheim Park
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
“The sky is wounded forever. Auschwitz was an unspeakably appalling attack upon everything that humanity stands for.” – Jan Wolkers

In 1993, the Dutch Auschwitz Comité commissioned a monument by Dutch artist and writer, Jan Hendrik Wolkers. It was initially installed in one of Amsterdam’s municipal cemeteries, but eventually moved to Amsterdam’s Wertheim Park. Called the “Auschwitz Monument” or “Mirror Memorial,” it is comprised of six broken mirrors placed in two rows. The artist chose the number of mirrors to represent the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Before the war, there were 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands. Between July 1942 and September 1944, nearly 107,000 Jews were deported, mainly to Sobibor and Auschwitz. Anne Frank and her family were among them. Of those sent to the camps, 5,200 survived and returned to the Netherlands. Each year, on January 27, Amsterdam holds a commemoration to mark the Russian liberation of Auschwitz at the memorial as a reminder of the war’s legacy.
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Auschwitz Memorial: Memory and Meaning
“A particularly moving example of Dutch memorialization is the Auschwitz memorial, located in the picturesque Wertheim Park in Amsterdam. In the artist Jan Wolkers’s own words, ‘The sky is wounded forever. Auschwitz was an unspeakably appalling attack upon everything that humanity stands for.’ To facilitate this artistic thesis, Wolker created six equally shaped panels of smashed mirrors. Each panel represents one million Jewish lives and the agony that they experienced and eventually succumbed to in the death camp. The mirrors’ cracks are, according to the artist, as close as we will get to punishing the sky for its pacifism. This particular monument is one of the most moving seen on the study abroad due to its wrathful tone. Instead of lifeless sobriety, the work of art blatantly shakes its fist at the fates for allowing mankind to create such atrocities. Created in the 1970s, the mirror monument was moved in 1993 to its current location from the municipal cemetery. The current installation allows much more intimacy to experience the piece as it was intended, in the peace of a picturesque park habituated by people walking their pets and those who specifically come to remember the dead. One criticism offered against the park locale is that one must expressly know what they seek. Otherwise, pedestrians and cyclists might never know that it existed. Yet, that is, perhaps, another of the points that makes this monument so special. The exclusivity of the location almost immediately brings forth the familiarity of a relative’s grave despite any relation. The plaque above the work proclaims solemnly, “Never Again, Auschwitz.” It does not seek to point a finger yet again, pointing to where guilt unquestionably lies. Instead, the uncompromised narrative does not plead or warn, it simply states. Wolker’s work is an elegant and powerful reminder of Auschwitz and its ashes.” Erik Teague, from “Art, Memory, and Propaganda: Impressions on International Public Memorials of the Holocaust,” Summer 2007

“Amsterdam’s spaces for memorials were few and far between, so the city had to make use of the small amounts of land it had. That is why most of these sites are found on sidewalks near a canal, or in a small plot of land used as a municipal park, but there was not much room for a grand memorial. So if the memorial cannot be immense in size then it needs to be immense in message and artistry. The Auschwitz Memorial in Wertheim Park is created by Jan Wolkers, an artist and writer from the Netherlands. The memorial is more than a memorial to murdered Jews of Auschwitz, it also serves as a symbolic grave. A remembrance is held ever year on the anniversary of the Russian liberation of the death camp on January 27. The message of the memorial is very poetic, but simple and understated. Its scale and design require thought and contemplation, an important ingredient in remembrance.” Chris Worley, from “Using the Landscape: Comparing Memorials in the Outdoor Urban Setting,” Summer 2007

The Anne Frank House
Prinsengracht 267
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” –Anne Frank

Anne Frank (1929-1945) is one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust. Her diary, written during her time in hiding in the secret annex in Amsterdam, is published in more than 60 languages. Eleanor Roosevelt once said her diary was “one of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war and its impact on human beings that I have ever read.”
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• June 12, 1929: Anne Frank is born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to Otto and Edith Frank.
• Summer 1933: Anne and her family move to Amsterdam to escape anti-Semitism and Germany’s new leader, Adolph Hitler.
• May 14, 1940: Germany invades the Netherlands and enforces laws discriminating against Jews.
• June 12, 1942: Anne celebrates her thirteenth birthday and is given her now famous diary.
• July 6, 1942: The Frank family goes into hiding in the secret annex after Anne’s sister, Margot, receives a call-up letter.
• July 1942-August 4, 1944: Anne’s family remains in hiding with another family, the Van Pels. Anne works diligently on her diary, even copying entries in preparation for publishing it after the war.
• August 4, 1944: The members of the secret annex are betrayed by an unknown informant, arrested by the Nazis, and sent to Westerbork transit camp. The last entry in Anne’s diary dates August 1, 1944, says “I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”
• September 2, 1944: Anne Frank and her family are sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau on one of the final deportations from Westerbork.
• Late October 1944: Anne and Margot Frank are transported to Bergen-Belsen.
• January 1945: Edith Frank, Anne’s mother, dies in Auschwitz.
• January 27, 1945: Otto Frank, Anne’s father, is liberated at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Anne and Margot are still alive in Bergen-Belsen when he is liberated.
• March 1945: Anne dies of typhus only days after her sister Margot succumbed to disease. Bergen-Belsen is liberated on April 15, 1944. Otto Frank is the only member of the family to survive the Holocaust.

The Anne Frank House
“During the restoration of the house, it was the intention to modernize the front part of the building, to be able to use it as an international youth center, but to leave the secret annex in its original condition as much as possible.” –Otto Frank, at the opening of the Anne Frank House, May 3, 1960

The building where the Frank family hid was Otto Frank’s office, factory, and warehouse for his company, Opekta. The annex was in the upper rear of the building and factory workers were unaware of the hiding place’s existence. In anticipation of a German invasion, the Frank’s secretly prepared the annex for several months before they went into hiding on July 6, 1942. The Frank’s, the van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeffer, spent more than two years in hiding. All but Otto Frank perished in the Holocaust.

After the war, Otto Frank worked with Amsterdam city officials to save the Opekta building, which included the hiding place, from demolition and open a museum on May 3, 1960. The museum was closed for remodeling in 1970 and again in 1999. During the 1999 renovation, the Anne Frank House was expanded into the building next door, which allowed for the addition of an interactive exhibit, café, and larger book store. Today many visitors are surprised to learn that the annex is no longer furnished. The furniture was stolen by the Nazis, and Otto Frank requested that any replica furniture be removed from the hiding place to offer visitors better access to the rooms.

The Chestnut Tree
“The two of us looked out at the blue sky, the bare chestnut tree glistening with dew.”
–Anne Frank, February 23, 1944

Anne Frank wrote often about a chestnut tree that was located in the courtyard of a house behind the secret annex, as it was a symbol of freedom. This tree inspired Anne and provided hope in a time of struggle and has been battling fungus problems for several years, which has left it unstable. Experiments show that over forty-two percent of the wood is rotten, making recovery impossible. In March 2007, a court in Amsterdam approved a felling license for the famous tree. The tree’s owner, with support of the Anne Frank House, attempted to save it, but the damage is too severe. As a result, grafts of the tree have been taken, and a new sapling will be planted once the tree is cut down. As of July 10, 2007, the tree was still standing.
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Anne Frank House: Memory and Meaning
“There are some places so inherent in their power that they’re no longer places; they are living lessons. This realization came to me last summer, following a visit to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.” –Stacey Morris, Ghosts of Prisengracht

“The simple preservation of the building alone allows each visitor to experience the confined spaces of the steep stairwells and living quarters. Each room, although empty, consist of information about the Holocaust and one to two excerpts from Anne’s diary. The quotes intentionally portray the information presented within each room shedding perspective on a victim’s actually thoughts and feelings during the war.” Christopher Bryce, “An Analysis of Holocaust Remembrance: Interpreting Themes of Museums, Memorials, and Historical Sites,” Summer 2007

“While the outside has been renovated and the floors repaired to accommodate the numerous visitors, most of the interior remains unchanged; the house is devoid of furniture as the Nazis looted and threw it out after arresting the families. However, things like Anne’s poster for her father’s business and her photographs of famous actors and actresses are preserved and still hang on the wall of her room. The kitchen sink, stove, and other areas are also intact; all of this adds to the appeal and sincerity of the memorial. The site allows visitors to place themselves in an environment long passed and have a small experience that can help make things more relatable and understandable.” Meg Tilton, “Preserving the Past to Educate the Future,” Summer 2007

For Further Research

• Jewish Virtual Library
• Jewish Historical Museum
• Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985.
• World Jewish Communities
• Anne Frank House Official Web site
• Anne Frank Center, USA
• Anne Frank Tree Web site
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Multimedia

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