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The Netherlands and the Jews in World War II

(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld - The Dutch government remains the only one in Western Europe that consistently refuses to admit, let alone apologize for, the massive failures of its predecessors towards the Jews during WWII. In May 1940, the Netherlands was occupied by the invading Germans. In the years to follow, more than 70% of its 140,000-strong Jewish population were murdered after having been sent to German camps, mainly in Poland. In the preparatory activities for what would lead to genocide, the Dutch authorities followed Nazi orders. Dutch police arrested Jews, including babies, simply for being Jews. Dutch railways transported Jews to the Dutch transit camp Westerbork, and from there to the German border. Dutch police guarded the Jews in the camp. While authorities in the occupied Netherlands assisted the Nazis, a small minority of good Dutchmen helped 24,000 Jews to hide. A third of these were ultimately betrayed. The Netherlands was the only occupied country in which a group of volunteers and a special police unit were paid to hunt down Jews in hiding. The writer is a senior research associate at the BESA Center and a former chairman of the Steering Committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
2019-01-25 00:00:00
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