Figure 1.--

The Germans deported about 107,000 Jews from the Netherlands. About 30,000 Jews decided to go undrground and hide. The Dutch term was "onderduiken", meaning to submerge, as the Dutch call it. Almost all Jews lived openly until the deportation began. The decission to go into hiding was very difficult. Most Jews who went into hiding had to do so as individuals. Most Jews did not go into hiding, or begin to plan to do so, until the German began large-scale round-ups in the fall of 1942. Most of the Jews who went into hiding were German Jews who had fled to the Netherlands. There are a variety of reasons that despite the dangers, few Dutch Jews went into hiding. There were Dutch people willing to help the Jews. The Germans, Dutch NAZIs, and Dutch police managed to track down about half of the 30,000 Jews who went into hiding.

Hiding

The Germans deported about 107,000 Jews from the Netherlands. About 30,000 Jews decided to go undrground and hide. The Dutch term was "onderduiken", meaning to submerge, as the Dutch call it. Almost all Jews lived openly until the deportation began. The decission to go into hiding was very difficult. The well known experiences of the Frank family suggest that Jews hid as families. Actually this was very difficult. German authorities in the Netherlands even after War was clearly lost remained obsessed with finding every remaining Jew.

Roundups

Most Jews who went into hiding had to do so as individuals. Most Jews did not go into hiding, or begin to plan to do so, until the German began large-scale round-ups in the fall of 1942. Most of the Jews who went into hiding were German Jews who had fled to the Netherlands. Perhaps two-thirds were Grman Jews. Presumably the German Jews had a more realistic assessment of the sinister charactr of the NAZIs. One author believes that the German Jews made have had more money than Dutch Jews to help finance their underground existence. [Anderson]

Dificulties

There are a variety of reasons that despite the dangers, few Dutch Jews went into hiding. The NAZIs made changing addresses a felony which alone meant you could be sent to a concentration camp like Mauthausen. For many "labor service" seemed a safer approach. Going into hiding meant that you no longer had a legal idenity and received rations. This meant food would have to be purchaed on the black market which entailed dangers in itself. It also required a great deal of money and the NAZI anti-Jewish measures had by 1942 left most Jews pennyless. [Anderson] Few had the monney to go into hiding. More Jews might have gone into hiding, but could not bring themselves to desert their families, especially children and elderly parents. Some did not wish to place Gentile friends in danger. NAZI policy varied from country to coutry. In Poland hiding Jews could mean death. This was not the case in the Netherlands, but Dutch friends hiding Jews could mean being sent to a concentration camp. Another problem was that while the Netherlands was atolerant country, prsonal relations were highly stratified on religious lines, a process called "verzuiling". Protestants, Catholics, and Jews all associated primarily within their own community. [Wolfe] Of course, one of the purposes of the anti-Jewish measures was to further isolate the Jews. This separation also affected how other Dutch people viewed the Jews.

Dutch Assistance

There were Dutch people willing to help the Jews. In fact, more Dutch people have been honored by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Israel, as "righteous gentiles" than from any other country. [Woolf] This is especially noteworthy given the small Dutch popultion.

Ann Frank

The most famous family to go into hiding was the Frank family. We of course know about them because of the touching dairy left by their youngest daughter Anne. As was the case for most of the Jews who tried to hide, the Franks were German Jews and more aware of the dangers posed by the NAZIs. They lived in an attic apartment together with the Van Daans, a Dutch Jewish family. Otto Frank, a decorated German army offucer in World War I, took his family into hiding as soon as his oldest daughter Margot received a notice to report for "labor service" in Germany. Frank suspected that she would never return. They spent 25 months in their attic hideaway. They almost made it, but they were betrayed only a few months before he Allies reached Amsterdam. The advancing Red Army had foirced the NAZIs to demolish and evacuate Auschwitz. Anne died of typhus March 1945, again just a few months before The Allies reached Bergen-Belsen. She was only 15 years old. Her diary, was saved Miep Gies who had assisted the family. It was first published in 1947 and has since been published into 55 languages. It is today one of the world's most widely read books. While Anne was not saved, perhaps that while her touching diary is widely read, Mein Kampf is a historical relic.

NAZI Hunt

The Germans, Dutch NAZIs, and Dutch police managed to track down about half of the 30,000 Jews who went into hiding. While this is alarge amount, it mean that half of the pople who went into hiding saved themselves. Very few Dutch Jews survived the deportations and death camps.

German authorities in the Netherlands even after War was clearly lost remained obsessed with finding every remaining Jew. One historian rmains that the Germans were especially obsessed with his in the Netherlands, more so than in other occupied countries. He believes that this was in part due to the fact that the intention was to annex the Netherlnds to the Reich after the War. [Anderson]

Sources

Anderson, Anthony E. "Anne Frank was not alone: Holland and the Holocaust" [Online], October 24, 1995.

Frank, Anne. Dairy of a Young Girl.

Woolf, Linda M. "Survival and Resistance: The Netherlands Under Nazi Occupation," April 6, 1999.

Created: October 12, 2002
Last updated: October 14, 2002