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96-586: Poland had the largest prewar Jewish population During the war had the largest number of hidden children, significant numbers were also hidden in France and the Netherlands , with smaller numbers in other parts of Western Europe. Children were hidden in several different ways, each traumatic, but those in which the child was separated from his or her parents proved the most difficult (see next section). In each of these cases, there had to be at least one non-Jewish helper on

192-555: A Christian family. After the war she was reunited with her biological mother, a person of whom she had no memory and subsequently had a difficult relationship. "I called my mother 'ma'am'". In contrast to many other countries where all aspects of Jewish communities and culture were eradicated during the Shoah, a remarkably large proportion of rabbinic records survived in Amsterdam, making the history of Dutch Jewry unusually well documented. In

288-625: A Dutch lorry driver, news from the BBC, and the wife of a Jew all spoke of the deportation of Jews and the potential implications of death. A report from Minden in December 1941 outlined how Jews were being deported to Warsaw in cattle cars, and, upon arrival, worked in factories, whilst the old and sick were shot. SD reports in April 1942 also outline how the Sicherheitspolizei were tasked with exterminating

384-494: 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." In October 1940, Dutch authorities required all civil servants to sign

480-457: A Jewish client in a labor camp in eastern Germany." Van der boom argues that if the victims knew of their fate upon deportation they would have most definitely acted differently and sought hiding. Olga Baranova argues that it is undeniable that the people of Belarus had a clear awareness of the Nazi's genocidal intent as they were first-hand witnesses . She argues that by examining the actions of

576-454: A Jewish girl about an upcoming pogrom . From this forewarning, a secret storeroom was constructed which hid and saved the lives of many Jews. Other means of assistance also included forgery , so that Jews could escape ghettos. Implementation of German policies did not occur without the knowledge of the Hungarian government. Hungarian national and local officials made key decisions concerning

672-442: A camp for the privileged, such as Theresienstadt or Bergen-Belsen . Secondly, he believed there to be labour camps for the majority of deportees and then thirdly, concentration camps for Jews who had to be punished for whatever reason. Joop Voet, also appears to have misunderstood the nature of concentration camps writing that he would take his children into hiding because he would likely be unable to take care of them properly at

768-523: A caring new family - but the trauma would often remain. The Catholic Church had baptized many Jewish children during the war to hide them as Catholics, but after the war often refused to reunite the children with their Jewish relatives. In the Netherlands, the Dutch government set up a commission after World War II to decide the care of orphaned children, whom they deemed foster children. The government treated

864-406: A cruel or murderous incident between guards and inmates. Usually, the inmate was beaten to death or shot for either disobeying or being unable to work. Longreich purports that it was not widely known that Jews were exterminated using gas chambers . Bankier purports that by 1943, gas as a killing method was widely discussed, although there were inaccuracies that gave rise to misconceptions of how

960-432: A list of giving locations. In Amsterdam, Anne Frank House has become an important site of memory, one of the few that focuses on a single individual to tell a much larger story. Some other sites of memory in Amsterdam have a much lower profile. Scholars study Holocaust sites of commemoration in the Netherlands, examining visitors' motivations for seeking them out and their emotional responses. Historical conceptions of

1056-599: 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

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1152-404: 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

1248-609: 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. Of those who survived, 4,000 were young children. Some were betrayed by friends, or strangers who agreed to hide them under false pretenses. Others were caught by

1344-524: A serious scale." How these young survivors should be considered in the postwar era created a controversy between Resistance members and Jewish adults surviving the Holocaust, who wished to rebuild the Dutch Jewish community. These two groups had different visions of the children's future; each considered themselves making better decisions for their guardianship. Resistance fighters' role in hiding children during

1440-516: A unit. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, a controversy arose concerning the Jewish children who survived their parents during the Holocaust. The children were often hidden by the Dutch Resistance with non-Jewish families. One scholar of the controversy contends that "The history of the Jewish war orphans in the Netherlands, while part of the post war era, represents a direct continuation of

1536-580: A visit by Slovak government officials to several camps run by Organization Schmelt , which imprisoned Jews in East Upper Silesia to employ them in forced labor on the Reichsautobahn . The visitors understood that Jews in the camps lived under conditions which would eventually cause their deaths. Slovak soldiers participated in the invasions of Poland and the Soviet Union ; they brought word of

1632-558: A woman recalls discussing foreign broadcasts with her neighbour which outlined how Jewish women and children were segregated from the Aryan population and then killed with gas. In 1944, also in the Munich Special Court, an Augsburg furniture removal man was indicted of having declared that the " Führer " was a mass-murderer who had Jews loaded into a wagon and exterminated by gas. There are competing views amongst historians regarding

1728-488: 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  [ nl ] , president of the Dutch Supreme Court . Over 2,500 Jews lost their public positions. Only the forced removal of Dutch Jews from secondary and higher education incited

1824-545: Is a recurrent historical issue. The precise number of people who knew of the Final Solution is unknown. The larger population were at least acutely aware of the Nazi Party's anti-Semitism , if not advocates of the movement themselves. Numerous perspectives emerge when examining the degrees to which the larger population were aware that anti-Semitic practices enabled by the Nazi Party would eventuate to ethnic cleansing of

1920-515: Is also known as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Maurice Frankenhuis built a collection of documents, authored diaries and collected artifacts spanning five decades, from World War I through World War II including hiding, and incarceration in Westerbork and Theresienstadt . His research revealed that he, together with his wife and two daughters may have been the only native Dutch family to survive as

2016-546: The Februaristaking (" February strike "), to show their support for Jewish citizens. The Nazis moved swiftly to suppress further citizen action and there was no further public action after the top Nazi official, Reichskommissar Seyss-Inquart, warned the Dutch public that there would be draconian consequences. One theory is that the Germans made use of the administrative organizations and Dutch police: "In their preparations for

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2112-557: The Minsk ghetto , and being saved by a Belarusian woman. His memoirs also recall how he and other deportees heard of Jews exterminated by death squads and being sent to city ghettos. There are also several instances when individuals accepted appointment to positions in local administration, with the intention of protecting the Jews in Belarus. Elper recalls how he heard how a Belarusian policeman told

2208-508: The Soviet Union , and it was known to the general German Public that this was where German Jews would be deported to. Similarly, Kershaw argues that local SD reports provided enough information such that Germans who wanted to seek the purpose of deportation would likely find the answer.  In July 1942, Karl Duerckefaelden, a Celle engineer, noted three instances in his everyday life where rumours of deportation circulated. A conversation with

2304-614: The Vichy government in France have been posited to be acutely aware of their complicity with the Nazis' genocidal policies. With regard to general populations, the overall consensus amongst historians appears to be that many were aware of a hatred towards the Jewry, but not insofar that a significant comprehension of the Nazis' genocidal policies was reached. Knowledge of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany

2400-585: The concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen . Disease was widespread in the camps because of unsanitary living conditions deliberately created by the German occupiers. Anne Frank's mother, Edith Frank-Holländer , was murdered by starvation in Auschwitz . Her father, Otto Frank , survived the war. Other noted Dutch victims of the Holocaust include Etty Hillesum , whose writings were later published; Abraham Icek Tuschinski , and Edith Stein , who converted to Christianity and

2496-636: 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. 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

2592-544: The Belarusians, it can be deduced that the general public understood the imminence of death that came with ghettoisation . From examining how some Belarusians collaborated with the Nazis, Baranova finds a clear awareness of the Nazi's genocidal policies. People who participated in disclosure would have understood the consequences of their actions as the Nazis' collective responsibility policies would execute entire families. Some Belarusians believed that by cooperating with

2688-508: The Commission for War Foster Children made to determine guardianship were that the parents were not returning; the status of children was equivalent to abandoned or neglected offspring, not orphans; members of the Resistance had legal standing on the commission, while Dutch Jews were invited to join the commission only as individuals, not representatives of a group. The commission did not recognize

2784-516: The Dienststelle Mühlmann, headed by Kajetan Mühlmann under Seyss-Inquart, and the LiRo bank, a Jewish bank called Lippmann & Rosenthal & Co. that had been taken over by Nazis to disguise theft as legal transactions, among others. 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

2880-631: The Dutch public's knowledge of the Holocaust. Some historians argue that the majority of the Dutch had a complete understanding of the Holocaust. After analyzing Queen Wilhelmina 's wartime speeches, social scientist Jord Schaap concluded that the Holocaust was known in the Netherlands between 1940 and 1945. According to Schaap, the key issue was whether or not the Dutch would believe the information. Similarly, Vuijsje in his book Against Better Knowledge: Self-Deception and Denial in Dutch Historiography of

2976-471: The German government, through the Claims Conference , officially arranged to make an extra restitution payment of 2,500 euros to each former hidden child, in addition to any other restitution for Holocaust experiences to which they were entitled. This was in recognition that any physical or emotional trauma suffered by a child would be greater than that suffered by an adult in similar circumstances, because

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3072-511: The German public eventually came to understand the likelihood of fatality if sent to a concentration camp. Prisoners began to appear in public spaces such as factories and city streets, and they often wore distinctive clothing with badges that signified their nationality and crime.  The nature of concentration camps was made further obvious by the SS 's public displays of violence towards inmates. Numerous interviews with German people mention either

3168-674: 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 . A key aim

3264-522: The Holocaust and its prolonged aftermath of human suffering." When the Nazis began to vigorously implement deportation of Jews from the Netherlands, Jews allowed members of the Resistance to place many children with non-Jewish families; they survived the war when their parents did not. Jewish children could be more easily hidden than Jewish adults, so a disproportionate number of the Jews who survived were children. "[T]his type of rescue operation could be organized on

3360-474: The Holocaust in the Netherlands and conceptions of Dutch decolonization. Knowledge of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe The question of how much knowledge German (and other European) civilians had about the Holocaust whilst it was happening has been studied and debated by historians. In Nazi Germany , it was an open secret among the population by 1943, Peter Longerich argues, but some authors place it even earlier. After

3456-481: The Holocaust in the Netherlands are dynamic, with an examination of the Dutch Resistance. A study of Holocaust memorials examines the conception of the Holocaust perpetrators. Holocaust aftermath memory in Dutch education is a subject of concern. As the Netherlands has become a multiethnic society, scholars have examined historical memory of the Holocaust of different ethnic groups. There is also scholarly work on

3552-541: The Hungarian public to know of the Nazi's genocidal policies; they saw, first-hand, the execution of Jews on the Eastern Front. The journals of Miksa Fenyő, editor of Nyugat ['West'], a literary journal that catalysed modern movements, demonstrate that Jews had access to information regarding the Holocaust. In one of his entries, he records a visit from one of his sources and discusses witnessing 600,000 Jews being dragged away to be killed. Fenyo's source also mentions that

3648-523: 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. The neutrality of

3744-463: The Jewish population. However, many historians argue that Germans were provided information explicit enough to indicate that the Jewish people were being massacred. Although the mass murder of Jews took place outside of Germany, the mass killing of Soviet prisoners of war occurred within it and at an early date. By mid 1942 an estimated 227,000 had died after being deported to Germany. Many Germans were aware of these killings. Some Germans tried to help

3840-618: The Jews in German-occupied territories, where victims would dig their own graves before being shot. This information reached the Erfurt area of Germany. Kershaw also explores the accessibility of this information by referencing diaries of German people. German people who travelled for work were more likely able to access information on mass shootings. Karl Duerckefaelden's brother-in-law, who travelled to Dnieper, spoke to him of informants who had seen mass shootings first-hand. One informant spoke of

3936-422: The Jews to camps in the Netherlands which were transit points to Auschwitz, Sobibor, and other death camps." With respect to Dutch collaboration, Eichmann is quoted as saying "The transports run so smoothly that it is a pleasure to see." The best-known of the Holocaust victims in the Netherlands is Anne Frank , a German Jewish refugee. Along with her sister, Margot Frank , she died from typhus in March 1945 in

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4032-481: The Nazi Party's foundation alludes to his prophecy of 30 January 1939 in which he foresaw the destruction of European Jews. This speech was then reported the following day in the Niedersaechsische Tageszeitung . Hitler publicly referenced his original 1939 prophecy at least four times in public in the year 1942. Historians such as Confino and Koonz argue that Hitler's emphasis on this prophecy during

4128-643: The Nazis (three-quarters of the pre-war Jewish population of the country). Some were native Dutch, and others were refugees who had sought asylum in the Netherlands. As a consequence of the involvement of Dutch transport companies in the transportation of Jews during World War II, the City of Amsterdam and the Municipal Transport Company (GVB) decided to place permanent memorials at three Amsterdam streetcar stops where Jewish citizens of Amsterdam were deported. In 1939, there were some 140,000 Jews living in

4224-457: The Nazis their fate was definitely dire and included possible death. This caused extreme stress and trauma at that time, and that trauma continued after the Holocaust and perhaps even into adulthood. After the war, as with nearly all child survivors of the Holocaust, most hidden children were never reunited with their parents, who nearly certainly had been murdered by the Nazis. Usually after some difficult delay, he or she would be truly adopted by

4320-482: The Nazis, they would increase their own chance of survival. Complicity from the Belarusian public ranged from: acceptance of Nazi policies, ignoring Jewish neighbours who needed assistance with food and shelter and disclosing to Nazi authorities about Jews in hiding. Some Belarusians participated in rounding up Belarusian Jewry and guarded the ghettos and concentration camps. Local auxiliary policemen also participated in

4416-429: 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

4512-743: 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

4608-450: The Netherlands, among them tens of thousands of refugees: some sources state 24,000–25,000 Jews had fled Germany in the 1930s, while others state that about 34,000 Jews entered The Netherlands from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1940. In 1945, only about 35,000 Dutch Jews were alive, many of whom emigrated to British Mandate of Palestine (present-day Israel ) and other countries; the 1947 census reported only 14,346 Jews, or 10% of

4704-526: The Persecution of the Jews , argues that public knowledge was extensive, but the Dutch public denied the information because of their inability to act against the reality. Other historians contend that many of the Dutch had fragmented knowledge of the Holocaust. Loe de Jong, director of the Dutch State Institute of War Documentation and Dutch historian, argues that while information about the Holocaust

4800-631: The Western side of the Reich. Comparatively, areas near the east of Europe make references to the camps. Particularly, primary sources report the Polish resistance movement comparing the Katyn massacre to Auschwitz concentration camp . Kershaw argues that there is a strong likelihood that German people understood the implications of deportation for evacuated Jews. There were numerous reports of mass shootings conducted in

4896-512: The anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. The Netherlands figures in comparative studies of memorialization of the Holocaust The changes over time of memorialization in the Netherlands has been the subject of study. The Resistance Museum in Amsterdam, founded in 1984 by members of the Dutch resistance, tells the complicated story of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and

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4992-406: The camps and its severity would kill his children. Many Jews appeared to have thought that deportees would still be able to survive at concentration camps. Kruisinga, the notary public who had heard numerous gassing rumours expressed surprise in his diaries when unable to contact a deported Jew to discuss business affairs: "It is easier to arouse the spirit of Julius Caesar than to get a letter from

5088-464: The change in Nazi policy, that is one from discrimination to systemic genocide. His report outlines how the Nazis had begun justifying the genocide so as to convince the Sztójay to cooperate with their policies. Ottlik's report also discusses how France was already cooperating with Nazi policies at the time of the report. Horthy's memorandum to the Sztójay outlines how he was forced in a situation where he

5184-567: The child was in hiding with at least one parent, the child had effectively lost all parental support during the war, but would be in the care of strangers. Younger children were often too young to remember their parents. Nonetheless, they did suffer the extreme trauma of separation from their parents and being placed with previously unknown "foster-parents." While they did not remember this trauma consciously, it remained in their subconscious and in most cases had an impact on their future life behavior. Older children knew that if they were discovered by

5280-455: The child would not yet have developed fully mature coping skills. Due to budgetary constraints, the amount of the payment (about $ 3,300 at the time) was only a token sum, but nevertheless brought high symbolic value. The 2021 French film Valiant Hearts by Mona Achache follows six Jewish children who were hidden in the Château de Chambord in France during World War II. The film was inspired by

5376-474: The children's being Jewish as relevant to their placement, and that their individual welfare was a Dutch matter, not a Jewish matter. For Dutch Jews, the way that the commission was conceived and functioned was as an adversary." One hidden child's story is part of the permanent exhibition at the Resistance Museum in Amsterdam. Ellen Mieke Olman was separated from her parents at nine months, and fostered by

5472-620: The civil administration had detailed records of the numbers of Jews, and their addresses. It is not entirely clear how much the average citizen of the Netherlands was aware of the operation of death camps for most of the Occupation. All Dutch citizens were required to "register" for work in Germany. Initially, Dutch society recognized German persecution of the Jews, they conducted the first act of mass civil disobedience in Nazi-occupied Europe:

5568-399: The county. Mayors were then responsible for determining ghettos' precise locations. In Kormend, chief administrative officers and deputy prefects met and decided that the boundaries of the ghetto were to be the streets surrounding the synagogue: Széchenyi Street, Gróf Apponyi Street, Dienes Lajos Street, and Rábamellék Street. Hungarian soldiers and labor servicemen were the first members of

5664-401: The destination of deportation trains as a great unknown.   Out of the 164 diaries examined by Van der Boom, only 24 implied that the deported Jews would be interned in camps. Of the remaining diaries, 61% discuss labour explicitly whilst another 24% imply being interned at camps. Another diarist, Philip Mechanicus , assumed there to be three types of camps. Firstly, he believed there was

5760-471: The early 1940s in response to the mortality rates in Mauthausen . This story was mentioned by four diarists analysed by van der Boom. Knowledge of mass shootings first appeared in a BBC report in 1942. Later that year, eyewitness stories of Jews forced to dig their own graves were recorded by two diarists. Ten other diarists also spoke of mass executions by shooting. Nazis' infliction of death by gassing

5856-517: The enemies of Germany and that the Nazis would seek their extermination . Deportation was famously described by Anne Frank as a march of death. However, most diarists were convinced that whilst they would be treated harshly and potentially face death, they did not think they would be killed immediately upon arrival. Some of the Dutch heard about prisoners' death by Nazis' experimentation, that is, where Jews would be compelled to be subjects of supposed science experiments. This story circulated in

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5952-458: The extermination of the Jews living in the Netherlands, the Germans could count on the assistance of the greater part of the Dutch administrative infrastructure. The occupiers had to employ only a relatively limited number of their own personnel; Dutch policemen rounded up the families to be sent to their deaths in Eastern Europe. Trains of the Dutch railways staffed by Dutch employees transported

6048-405: The gassings were practiced. Reports and interviews only have vague and infrequent references to victims being gassed in cattle trucks of trains in tunnels. This information, if disseminated, was done so via foreign broadcasts and rumours from soldiers. Indictment of German individuals reveal that some of the public knew of the gas chambers, but were censored. In the Munich Special Court in 1943,

6144-506: The height of the holocaust meant that it became a shared ideal among the society. From the analysis of primary sources circulating during the Second World War, historian Ian Kershaw deduces that areas of Germany closer to Poland and Russia had more knowledge of the ongoing extermination of Jews, as they were physically closer to the killing areas. The names of extermination camps are rarely mentioned in primary sources originating from

6240-513: The implementation of anti-Jewish measures and were aware of the Nazis' genocidal intent. Hungarians who worked near the concentration camps were witnesses of deportation and executions. Historians Vági, Csősz, and Kádár argue that the government had a clear understanding of the Nazi's genocidal policies and actively collaborated with the regime. György Ottlik's 1944 report to the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reflects an awareness of

6336-420: The issue as a Dutch matter and not a Jewish matter, causing Dutch Jews wishing to reconstitute the Jewish community to see the Dutch government as an adversary. One scholar contends that the controversy was a continuation of the Holocaust into the postwar period. A notable source on hidden children is a book of excerpts of writings by themselves "Out of Chaos: Hidden Children Remember the Holocaust" . In 2014,

6432-533: The killings are committed by both the Gestapo and the Hungarian guard. In a testimony, Father John S recounted seeing trainloads of Hungarian Jews upon peering through a fence and seeing one man being struck down by an SS guard. From examining approximately 5000 Hungarian testimonials, the staff of the Hungarian Jewish relief organisation, National Committee for Attending Deportees (DEGOB) were able to conclude that

6528-414: 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

6624-485: The lives of over a thousand Jews. The Hungarian Interior Ministry specifically, issued a confidential ghettoisation order and also defined the parameters. County officials were responsible for deciding which towns would have ghettos. Written in May 1944, a letter from prefect of Vas County to chief administrative officers and mayors revealed that the deputy prefect of Vas county decided that seven ghettos were to be established in

6720-514: The majority of Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz were unaware that they would be killed upon arrival. Refugees from Poland and Slovakia tried to warn Hungarian Jews of the consequences of deportation. A student from Munkács, T. F. was informed of Auschwitz from disclosure by his Slovakian cousin. The highest levels of the Slovak government were aware by late 1941 of mass murders of Jews in German-occupied territories. In July 1941, Wisliceny organized

6816-461: The mass shooting of 118 Jews no longer fit for work and two different mass burials of 50,000 and 80,000 Jews on the trip home. Another trip involved interaction with people on the front who stated that all the Jews in Ukraine were dead. According to Gellately, the German public initially understood that Nazi concentration camps were educative institutions for criminals. However, despite censorship,

6912-521: The mass shootings of Jews, and participated in at least one of the massacres. Some Slovaks were aware of the 1941 Kamianets-Podilskyi massacre , in which 23,600 Jews, many of them deported from Hungary, were shot in western Ukraine. Defense minister Ferdinand Čatloš and General Jozef Turanec reported massacres in Zhytomyr to President Jozef Tiso by February 1942. Both bishop Karol Kmeťko and papal chargé d'affaires Giuseppe Burzio confronted

7008-710: The mass shootings. Such collaboration occurred in the Western part of Belarus, which was under civilian administration (the Generalkommissariat Weißruthenien ) and Eastern Belarus, which was overseen by the German Army Group Centre . Baranova explores also, that by looking to the actions of those who assisted Jews in escaping the ghettos, it can be shown that the Belarusian knew of imminent death upon relocation to ghettos. The memoirs of Holocaust survivor Georgji Elper describe his experiences in

7104-518: 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

7200-542: 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". Some 75% of the Dutch-Jewish population was killed in the Holocaust, an unusually high percentage compared to other occupied countries in western Europe. There is debate among scholars about

7296-581: The outside, who risked his or her own life to help. Remembrance and records about such a person would often lead Yad Vashem , the Holocaust Remembrance Museum in Israel, to designate and honor them as " Righteous among the Nations " (this is often mis-stated as "Righteous Gentile"). Hidden children during the Holocaust faced significant trauma during and after World War II. Most importantly, except when

7392-401: 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. Like in other occupied countries, attempts were made to hide Jews and other wanted people from German authorities. The geography of

7488-569: 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. 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

7584-509: The police. 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

7680-483: The postwar period, Holocaust memorials were created in many places directly under Nazi control and there are now scholarly works on the holocaust in historical memory. The Netherlands has been part of this process of memorialization and scholarly assessment. The Dutch government established National Holocaust Remembrance Day as the last Sunday in January, while a number of counytries fix the commemorations date at January 27,

7776-414: The pre-war population. 34,379 "full Jews" are estimated to have survived the Holocaust, of whom 8,500 were part of mixed marriages , and thus spared deportation. Another 14,545 "half Jews" and 5,990 "quarter Jews" are estimated to have survived. Several factors contributed to The Netherlands' higher death toll compared to other occupied countries. The governmental apparatus was left relatively intact after

7872-473: The prisoners, by giving them food or even aiding escapees. According to the Security Service reports , many Germans called for the death of these prisoners out of fear that feeding them would reduce their own rations. Nazi policies were widely available to the population. Numerous speeches spoken by Hitler in 1942 allude to the destruction of Jews. Notably, on 24 February 1942, Hitler's speech celebrating

7968-510: The public knew the Jewish people were deliberately singled out to be sent to concentration camps in Poland . The Jewish people were also aware of the Nazi's wish to practice genocide . Many diarists from Amsterdam particularly, conclude that death would be imminent for Jews. Diaries from Etty Hillesum , an aspiring writer and Joop Voet, a young accountant, both discussed a recognition that Jews were

8064-446: 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

8160-644: The real-life experiences of the director's grandmother, Suzanne Achache–Wiznitzer. A 2002 documentary, Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII , covered the hidden children. The Holocaust in the Netherlands The Holocaust in the Netherlands was organized by Nazi Germany in occupied Netherlands as part of the Holocaust across Europe during the Second World War . The Nazi occupation in 1940 immediately began disrupting

8256-405: The royal family and government fled to London, and The Netherlands was not under a military regime. It was the most densely inhabited country of Western Europe, making it difficult for the relatively large number of Jews to go into hiding. Most Jews in Amsterdam were poor, which limited their options for fleeing or hiding. The country did not have much open space or forest for people to flee to. Also,

8352-408: The varieties of Dutch response to the Nazis' policies resulting in the annihilation of three-quarters of Dutch Jews. The museum catalogue published a catalogue of the new permanent collection in 2023. There are various types of Holocaust memorialization including a digital archive of Dutch Holocaust victims' names. The built urban environment of Dutch cities has incorporated Holocaust memorials, with

8448-433: The war earned them legal standing with the Dutch governmental commission established to determine their fate. Children were often smuggled out of Amsterdam to many other places in the Netherlands, where they were integrated into existing non-Jewish families. In the postwar period, the Dutch government established principles to consider the welfare of the children that recognized the role of the Dutch resistance. The assumptions

8544-474: The war, many Germans claimed that they were ignorant of the crimes perpetrated by the Nazi regime, a claim associated with the stereotypical phrase "Davon haben wir nichts gewusst" ("We knew nothing about that"). In German-occupied Europe , governments were acutely aware of the implications of their complicity, and that the general population, to varying degrees, were usually not aware of the implications of ghettoization and deportation . Governments such as

8640-477: Was available to the general public, a large proportion of Dutch Jews thought it incomprehensible that their deportation would result in deaths by gassing. De Jong argues that knowledge of mass extermination was only acquired after World War II had ended. Similarly, historian Friedlander argues that even those who were in close proximity to the killing sites had little knowledge of what happened to deported Jews. Van der Boom's analysis of Dutch diaries reveals that

8736-469: Was either not enough evidence or that the evidence was not reliable. Van der Boom argues that by examining the obedience of victims, it can be concluded that immediate murder was unknown amongst the Dutch Jewry. It remained unclear to diarists whether going into hiding would be less dangerous than being deported to concentration camps. Half of Jewish diarists and a quarter of Gentile diarists referred to

8832-542: 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. In all, 107,000 Jews were deported from prisons in Germany and the Netherlands to concentration camps. Of these, only 5,200 survived. In total 102,000 Jews were murdered by

8928-552: 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

9024-462: Was not allowed to intervene with German policies. Horthy describes the Jewish question as cruel and inhumane. The Hungarian elite also had significant knowledge of the Nazi's genocidal policies. The Relief and Rescue Committee in Budapest, run by Zionist activists, bargained for the lives of Jews with Nazi officials. The committee would offer cash, valuables, contacts, promises of alibis in exchange for

9120-408: Was spoken of by diarists, and many did believe in the information. Thirty-five out of the 164 diarists wrote of Jews being gassed. This knowledge originated from detailed reports on Auschwitz, the deportation of Hungarian Jews , news reports and eyewitness accounts of the liberation of camps.  A number of diarists did not believe it to be a real practice by the Nazis because they deemed that there

9216-520: Was to separate Dutch Jews from their legal protections and Dutch cultural milieu, extinguishing first their rights and then their lives. 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

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