The Difficult position of The Jewish Council (De Joodsche Raad)
Introduction
Of the approximately 160,000 Jews in the Netherlands at the time of WW2, 107,000 were deported and only 5,200 of them returned alive: about 73 percent of them did not survive the Holocaust. With this number, the Dutch Jews suffered the highest number of victims per capita in the Holocaust. One reason for this massacre was wryly enough “De Joodsche Raad” (the Jewish Council).
The Jewish Council was established by order of the Germans in 1941 and was the Jewish organization instructed to ‘manage the Jewish community in the Netherlands during the war’. Through the Council, the occupier issued orders to the Jewish community. As a result, the members of the Jewish Council faced major dilemmas.
The ultimate words to what extent this Council was half-guilty or not of collaboration with the German occupiers will probably never be fully answered.
Gemmeker (Camp commander Westerbork) and Aus der Fünten (Responsible for Deportation Jews) Christmas 1942
The Dilemmas
During the meeting in which the Jewish Council learnt of the occupiers' plans to start deporting Jews to labor camps in Germany, some council members expressed anger and frustration, questioning the Council's role and suggesting resistance to the occupation.
In particular, a meeting between the Jewish Council's chairmen Abraham Asscher and David Cohen and Hauptsturmführer Ferdinand aus der Fünten, who was the informal leader of the German body responsible for carrying out the deportations, the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung, resulted in much confusion.
The chairmen were shocked by the announcement of imminent deportations, but Aus der Fünten assured them that many Jews would remain in the Netherlands. The Council faced the dilemma of whether to cooperate or refuse. Eventually, they decided to assist in the registration and deportation of Dutch Jews, by registering all the Jews and helping with assembling the deportees in the “Hollandse Schouwburg” and continuing to distribute the German ordinances and threats in Het Joodsche Weekblad, (The Jewish Weekly Newspaper).
Every instance where the Council protested against the deportations was answered by more deceptive and manipulative answers by Aus der Fünten, who constantly spread lies of false hope and concessions.
The deception included the illusion of negotiation and the myth that Jews were being sent to “reasonable” labor camps. The Briefaktion, a scheme involving forced postcards from extermination camps, further perpetuated this deception. Despite rumors of mass murder, the chairmen dismissed them as propaganda and believed the postcards were genuine.
Both Abraham Asscher and David Cohen survived World War II.
Jewish Council leader David Cohen, center, and two members of the council during the deportation of Jews on 20 June 1943
The Crystal Butterfly and The Jewish Council
Edda mentions the “Joodsche Raad” several times, also in her diary. Here’s a snippet where she writes about the distribution of the yellow stars.
Amsterdam, 29 April 1942
The Nazis will never stop. A new humiliation has been announced today and I fear it will break my proud Ash. As of the 3rd of May, all Jews must wear a six-pointed yellow Star of David with the word ‘Jood’ on it.
It’s a preposterous measure. Why would we want to label our fellow citizens on the street as Jews? It will only make them feel further isolated from non-Jewish Dutch. And if they don’t wear the star, they can be sent to a concentration camp!
There will be much confusion, I fear. I haven’t spoken Ash about it yet, but it is the “Joodsche Raad” who must distribute the stars among the Jews in Holland. Three days they’ve been given to hand them out. And the Jews have to pay for these wretched stars themselves. Four stars per person for four cents each. Children as young as 6 years old have to wear them. Apparently, a total of 569,355 Stars of David have to be distributed.
I’m appalled! Herr Hitler, you are mad!
Registration of arrested Jews in the Hollandsche Schouwburg
Registration of arrested Jews in the Hollandsche Schouwburg on the Plantage Middenlaan
After the first transports in the summer of 1942, fewer and fewer people responded to the German call to report for departure to Westerbork. The Amsterdam police picked up the Jews from home and brought them to the Hollandsche Schouwburg. The Joodsche Raad had made a number of provisions in the theater, but these were by no means sufficient to reasonably accommodate three to four hundred people. Sometimes the detainees only stayed there for a day, but the stay could also take a week. In the dark of the night the Jews left for Westerbork.
The Joodsche Newspaper 7 August 1942
The Jewish Newspaper
(under the authority of the Jewish Council)
The German authorities announce:
1. All Jews who do not immediately comply with a call to them for labor expansion in Germany, will be captured and sent to the concentration camp at Mauthausen.
This or other punishment will not be applied to those Jews, who still, with hindsight, decide to appear before Sunday, August 9, 1942, at 5 o'clock, report or declare that they are prepared to participate in job creation.
2. All Jews who do not wear the Star of David shall be sent to the concentration camp at Mauthausen.
3. All Jews who change their place of residence or residence without the permission of the authorities - even if they do so only temporarily - are sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp.
The new Holocaust Names monument of Amsterdam
The new Holocaust Names monument of Amsterdam and its characteristic red walls, built with thousands of red bricks. Above you see the large mirrors. Each red brick has an inscription of one name of the thousands of Jewish victims during the Second World War; free photo Amsterdam by Fons Heijnsbroek, April 2022
