17/10/2023
Development of Jewish minority in the Netherlands
Instructor: Dr. Koen Vossen
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1
Introduction
Since the days of feudalism, the Jewish nation has been shaken by hatred, discrimination, and finally it
resulted in the position of unequal members of society. It was and is all because of their religion. It has
its own rules, a code of conduct that is binding for every member and that created a very strong bond
between them. However, the prejudices against them were stronger in the past, they were facing
condemnation, they had to push themselves into a corner, they were isolated from the "non-Jews". The
situation regarding World War II did not help them either, it had a massive negative impact in the
upbringing of their culture and their society. Leaders such as Hitler, Stalin let their hatred take it too far
to absolutely destroy most of the members of the Jewish society, resulting in devastating decline. To
outline what the death tolls look like, in Slovakia, after 1930’s census, there were 136 737 members of
Jewish community. After the war, there were no more than 20 000 Jews that survived and stayed in
Slovakia, and from that number more than 90% were deported to the camps of darkness and mostly
their final end of their lives. (Molnarova, 2023)
Connected to the previous research of Jewish population development in Slovakia and also putting an
impact on the effects that Holocaust brought, the research aim of this paper is to acquaint the reader
with development of the Jewish community in the Netherlands, especially to outline the first years of
the life of these newcomers and what kind of challenges they met with, which is described in the second
chapter. In the chapters three and four, the paper also looks at what were the consequences of the
situation before World War II, what was the Netherland´s stance, and then also the biggest event of the
twentieth century, which was the second war and numerical image of the losses of Jews.
We can find a lot of research about the Jewish community in the Netherlands, but not many focuses on
the data from the very first years of their finding up until these days and mixes up more literature. The
paper mostly focuses on the changes throughout the years from the very start, which kind of
communities were there and also the unsaid battles between various Jewish communities in The
Netherlands. Including the numbers of Jewish people over years, the sociological changes in cultures,
many factual information about the events in history, this paper should mostly explain and show its
reader the image of their life and the concessions they had to make.
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2
Development of minority before World War II
The probable first step to creating the Jewish community in the Netherlands was discovering first traces
of arrival of Jews to one of the Low Countries back then, specifically today´s Belgium, during the
Roman conquest, but there cannot be found many data from this period. It is more likely that only a
small number of them settled in this country during this period. The documents that we can consider
reliable date from year 1110, revealing us that for many centuries the Jews were very much persecuted
and expelled from social life on a regular basis. Sources from 11th and 12th centuries also mention that
there were some disputes between Christians and Jews, from which the Christians attempted to convince
Jews of the truth of Christianity and wanting them to convert to this religion. From the 13 th century´s
data found, it can be observed that the Jews were mostly found in the areas of Limburg, and in cities
like Brussels, Leuven or Maastricht. (Jewish Virtual Library, 2023) The Jodenstraat in Maastricht, a
district including the synagogue and a Jewish school back from 1295, is a clear evidence that shows the
presence of Jews back in the Middle Ages. What is worth mentioning is their settlement after driving
them out of England and France back in year 1295 and 1306. This resulted in them settling down in the
South and also in some of the eastern regions. Cities like Maastricht, Zwolle, Nijmegen, Zupthen,
Oldenzaal held a strategic position for Jews to take part in banking and moneylending. (Bernfeld,
Wallet, 2023, page 11)
Between years 1347 and 1351, the bubonic plague called the Black Death spread throughout Europe
when the ship from Crimea and Asia brought infected rats with the illness. The data shows that more
than 60% of population died as an effect of infection of this serious illness, estimated number is close
to the imagination of 25 million people. (Martin, 2017). The humiliation of Jewish community appears
at this times, by accusing Jews of poisoning the Holy water used by Christians and rapidly spreading
the illness, which resulted in massive death tools. As the site mentions (Jewish Virtual Library, 2023),
it is stated in medieval chronicles of Radalphus de Rivo of Tongeren that Jews were being killed in the
city of Zwolle and region of Brabant after being accused of spreading the plague.
The hatred most likely continued by blood libels against the Jews such as burning some of the Jews in
Brussels in 1370 because of the theft and dishonouring the Holy Sacrament. Other traces of insulting
and dishonouring Jews can be found in cities like Utrecht or Deventer in this times. But the overall
situation was becoming more positive, from around 1368 onwards there were communities of Jews in
Nijmegen, Zwolle, Venlo and Roermond also. These cities were quickly becoming the centres for
Jewish life, with their own Jewish markets, cemeteries and their own Jodenstraats. Hovewer, what
caused their emigration from the Low Countries were the anti-Jewish measures such as wearing of a
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mark or accusations of usury. (Bernfeld, Wallet, 2023) The traces of Jews in the Netherlands for the
next 200 years are very small to none. (Jewish Virtual Library, 2023)
2.1
First settlers
As can be seen, the late Middle Ages did not make it easy for Jews to settle down permanently in the
Holland back then. Much more favourable situation occurred at the end of sixteenth century and the
start of seventeenth century. The first wave of Jews came from Portugal and Spain because of the
Spanish Inquisition, whose goal was to fight against heresy in Spain, because medieval Spain at these
times was a multiracial and multireligious country with many Jews and Muslims. The aim of Spanish
kingdom during inquisition was to consolidate power. Jews had a strategic position, because there was
a huge community of them in Spain and were ordering them to convert to Christianity, otherwise they
faced death. Also, there were some other political issues. As a result, they emigrated to Holland as
a Convertos, better said as Catholic merchants. (Bernfeld, Wallet, 2023) Their arrival was very much
welcome, because Holland was an important key player and most important province of the Republic
of the Seven United Netherlands, which has just risen again and gained their power back after the
suppressing of rebellion of Dutch noblemen by the King of Spain. Known later by a name of Sephardim
Jews, they contributed largely to the growth of trade and that resulted in increase of the wealth of the
country. Some of them had the ability to make themselves rich and the community was involved in
many cultural and social activities, later became an inspiration for artists like Rembrandt or philosopher
Baruch Spinoza.
There was also other group of Jews that immigrated to the country called Ashkenazim. Their countries
of origin were Poland and Germany, especially western part of Germany. Bloody pogroms in this
countries made it unliveable resulting in their settlement in Holland. The Ashkenazim were far different
from Sephardim, regarding the culture, traditions and language. The two groups had their own
gatherings or better said congregations. The Sephardim was the smaller group, in 1672 they represented
a number less than 2500 of them and Ashkenazim were more than 5000 of total population of Holland
of 180 000. (Galen Last, Wolfswinkel, 1996)
Did the Jews fancy this country enough to settle down? Yes, of course, because the country did not
order them to wear prescribed marks on their clothes, or live in ghettos, they could practically enjoy
their free life. Of course, some rules had to be implemented, but it was mostly from the cities side,
although they were not permitted to order Jews to wear something visibly making them look they are a
Jewish person. Some of the cities welcomed Jews with warm hug, while others banned them. They
never made it to being more than 2% of the whole population. However, many immigrants found it
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favourable to come to the Netherlands and come back to the religion of their ancestors, encouraged by
tolerance laid in the Union of Utrecht, which basically became a new Dutch Republics´ constitution.
Jewish community, however, was responsible for keeping the watch on their internal organization,
education, healthcare and maintaining the peace. They also enjoyed the freedom of speech and
spreading their religion in silence. (Bernfeld, Wallet, 2023) What they could not do was to try
converting Christian to Jew, have any sexual relationship with Christian or libel Christendom in word
or in writing. They were so much tolerated that the country allowed them later on to publish sacred and
learned texts. (Galen Last, Wolfswinkel, 1996)
2.2
Amsterdam and next centuries
As can be seen, the late spread basically all over the country, better said in the cities that were
economically more important, but Amsterdam was more interesting. Beth Jacob, the first Jewish
congregation founded by New Christians from Spain and Portugal, as said before, was established in
1602 in merchant city Amsterdam. Amsterdam at these times had grown into successful global trading
centre, making opportunities for trade between northern and southern Europe. The Jews have also had
a strong impact on Amsterdam and Jewish life has been an important part of the city. The three
congregations that has been made from the year 1602 have united into one in 1639 called the Portuguese
Jewish Congregation Kahal Kados de Talmus Torah, and it still exists. (Bernfeld, Wallet, 2023)
Later in the eighteenth century, the much favoured stability came to the lives of Jews. Amsterdam
became a largest Jewish city in Europe and was considered as a beacon of tolerance. Their community
was expanding everywhere in the Dutch Republic demographically, geographically but also
intellectually. They were often the key player in contacting high authorities of the cities, cooperated
with Christians and also had a good relationship with the House of Orange. Ashkenazim were supposed
to overtake Sephardim Jews and both of them were doing economically good. Despite this, economic
restrictions that were placed on them put them in the position of poverty. In the second half of the
eighteen century, they became more politically involved and were more responsive to the idea of
Enlightenment. Jews expressed unequivocally their opinion on emancipation by agreeing with it in
several works like Reflexoens politicas by Isaac de Pinto. To enlighten how many Jews had lived in the
Dutch Republic in seventeenth and eighteenth century, the Amsterdam as the ideal image, number of
Portuguese Jews, Shepardim, rised to 4,000 in 1700 and the Askhenazim outgrew them to the number
9,000 in 1725. According to census held in the late eighteen century, 24,000 Jews were living in
Amsterdam and formed around a tenth of total number of population of Amsterdam. The number
increased to 31,000 in 1808. Jews could be found in other cities too, in The Hague, the number was
1,871 and in the rest of the country they represented number 14,649. (Bernfeld, Wallet, 2023)
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In 1796, after the Netherlands had been occupied by the French revolutionary armies, the Jews were
granted full civil rights regarding equality with every other Dutch subject. Finally, they were full
citizens of the country that they have lived in for many years and the numbers of them grown into the
number 30,000. (Bernfeld, Wallet, 2023) Majority of Jews before French occupation had lived in a
poverty, but after the occupation they gained access to other professions. Mostly, they stayed loyal to
the typical Jewish profession of this times, trading. The important trading company, the Dutch East
India Company has virtually bankrupted in 1796, leading to a series of serious economic recession.
However, the slow process of industrialization and modernization did not happen until the second half
of the nineteenth century. (Galen Last, Wolfswinkel, 1996)
2.3
Industrialization and integration
The industrialization was a key event for the Jews to take up other professions like printing, diamond
industry, textile or food industry. They also started to get involved in public life, in political movements
such as socialist parties, in which they had an interest in the emancipation of women or making a social
legislation to enable complete freedom of enterprise. Jews has a strong empathy for social justice,
mostly because of their experiences. The Jewish proletariat was more for socialism than Zionism. They
contributed to early labour movement and socialism. The unions, for example of workers, had a strong
impact on the cultural uplift of Jewish working classes.
The nineteenth century is claimed definitely as the century of Jewish integration. The wave of
antisemitism spread through, and the only getaway was to assimilate. In Holland it was not that serious,
so only few of them transferred to Christianity. How did their lives look? Most of Ashkenazim (German)
Jews still spoke Yiddish and Sephardim spoke little Portuguese, but mostly they were trying to speak
Dutch. The Jews felt the need to integrate themselves strongly into the society. Jews underwent a
secularization, mostly feeling reluctant to the fact that they belong to Jewish nation, so they tried to be
more Dutch by placing their kids to Dutch schools, mixed marriages were another way how to integrate
into the society. The loss of the traditional knowledge of Jewish culture was the biggest loss of the
emancipation, many of Jews didn´t familiarize with Old Testament anymore. Jewish food culture, for
example, stayed a tradition just for the Sabbath evening, but for the rest days it was not common
anymore. The result was that emancipation made Jews to be more Dutch than to be more Jewish. The
literature is not saying that they did not feel Jewish anymore, it still remained important part of their
life, they were important minority amongst others. We can call it rather acculturation. (Galen Last,
Wolfswinkel, 1996)
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3
Jewish community and political situation before World War II
The Netherlands, together with Belgium and France created decentralized states with a high degree of
local autonomy. Every state was slightly different from other. The Netherlands as a nation-state was
more organized from the centre. The Dutch people were mostly made to obey to central power and
regulations. Why obey? The roots of this mentality can be found in historic, socio-economic liberal
traditions that have been combined with particularly being okay with the presence of Protestant culture.
The differences of obedience came from the medieval urbanized culture, and the differences between
the states could be visible during the German occupation in World War II.
The mayor system was also different, in the Netherlands the mayor was more of a civil servant, which
was selected by the central state for six years but mostly the position was renewed until the mayor
retired. Mayor had no voting rights. Dutch provincial government was weaker during years 1850 and
1940, central control was at local level instead. Generally speaking, the Netherlands handled the
systematic crisis of interwar year the best. They were kind of holding their neutral positions. To affirm
the claims, the result of the 1918 elections was similar if not the same to those in 1913. The interwar
years brought the rise of Dutch Socialist party. They never had much of success in local elections, but
step by step they grew in urbanized towns. Also communist party was present. (Wouters, 2016)
The increased popularity of media like radio and film came in Holland after 1920. There were, however,
many opinions as the Netherlands was a country of sub-cultures and different communities. That led to
typical Dutch pilarisation in the thirties. Jews didn´t create their own organizational network in order to
more adapt to the Dutch society. Mild forms of antisemitism occurred, but never rised to pogroms.
The large amounts of Jews came to the Netherlands in search of safe haven in thirties, mainly from
Germany. Between years 1933 and 1939, almost more than 30,000 Jews escaped from Germany. The
reasons were obvious- antisemitism, Kristallnacht pogrom and the German Jews knew they could not
stay in Germany. So called Jewish Relief Committees ensured bearable life for the immigrants. The
impact of financial crash of Wall Street and economic crisis did not make it easy for the Dutch
Government – they were not ready to welcome the new refugees and for the stake of keeping up with
immigration restrictions, many were rejected. The other half was sent to the big camp that Dutch
government has built at the northeast of the Netherlands. The fear of increasing antisemitism after
incoming of refugees grew between the Jews living in Holland from 1800. The relief committees
stimulated further emigration to other countries, with support of individuals organizing transports.
Amsterdam became somehow the centre for emigrant literature, with new flows from many cities like
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Berlin. One condition needed to be followed, which was to abstain from political activities. (Galen Last,
Wolfswinkel, 1996)
The development of numbers of the Jews are following: In the Netherlands, the last pre-war census in
1930 registered 111,917 people as members of a Jewish religious organization. This was around 3,000
fewer than in 1920. In 1930, the percentage of Jews in the entire Dutch population had dropped to
1.41%. One of the variables that contributed to the decline was a lower birth rate among Jews than
among non-Jews. The Jews in the Netherlands were an aging population on the very start of World War
II. The Jewish population's percentage of the cohort of children under the age of ten fell from 16% in
1920 to 14% in 1930, while the whole population's share fell from 23% to 21%. (Braber, 2013)
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4
World War II
Poland was invaded by the German troops on September 1, 1939. Two days later, England and France,
both Poland's allies, declared war on Germany. The Second World War had begun, but there had been
no fighting for some years after the German conquest of Poland. The Netherlands officially stayed
neutral, due to avoiding of getting involved into international conflicts and the theme of Nazi Germany
was sensitive.
On May 10, 1940, the German invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France has started. After hard
start of the occupation, German policy in these three countries was similar in many ways: their goal was
to cooperate with national governments, maintain law and order, gradually achieve adaptation to Nazi
policies, and integrate the economies for the benefit of Germany in the most flexible way possible. This
was in contrast to the Nazis' strategy in the occupied part of Poland, where the Polish government was
forcibly suppressed and the country's economy was looted while the Germans violently treated the
populace. (Anne Frank House, 2023) The anti-Jewish policies they impose were several, from isolating
the Jews from the rest of the population to damaging their property. The process began in July 1940,
when the so-called Green police issued guidelines. Three groups of people were to be expelled, one of
which was Jewish. However, it was exclusively applied to Jews by the Dutch authorities. (Bar-Efrat,
2016)
4.1
Resistance
Following the initial anti-Jewish policies by Dutch authorities under Nazi regime, the occupying forces
in the Netherlands ordered the registration of all Jewish public servants and officials, who were then
prohibited from holding office in November 1940. Non-Jewish people were required to sign a
declaration stating that they were not Jewish. The general public protested this act, particularly
university students and professors, but at this point, general resistance groups were still limited. Jewish
demonstrators were transferred to detention camps after which their death notifications began to arrive
fast. Jewish protests were instantly put down. The registration of Jewish corporate assets had begun a
month earlier, and then came the registration of individuals. By the end of August 1941, no less than
160,790 registrations had been processed, comprising 140,522 Jews, 14,549 Half-Jews, and 5,719
Quarter-Jews. These estimates took into account the 15,174 refugees from Germany, Austria, and
nations under German occupation who were living in the Netherlands at the time. Because everyone
had to register with the local Dutch authorities and most people saw this as a civic obligation they
undertook out of loyalty, fear of retaliation, or simply because they could not see an alternative and
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could not supervise the consequences of registration, it appears that almost everyone complied with the
order.
Being listed as Jewish was nothing new in and of itself; Jewish communities have already kept records
of their membership. Furthermore, Jewish compliance with the registration requirement coincided with
general edict obedience at the time. Moreover, it was not until the operation was well underway that it
was decided that Jews would obtain identity papers with a J. (Braber, 2013) The situation in the
Netherlands quickly deteriorated in February 1941. This was due to anti-Jewish riots in Amsterdam,
which were instigated by Dutch National Socialists with the covert help of local German authorities.
Following an incident with German police in an ice cream parlour owned by Jews, SS chief of police
Rauter had 400 Jewish men taken prisoner and brought to a concentration camp as retaliation. Extremely
brutal razzias were carried out in Amsterdam, which were witnessed by many non-Jewish residents,
resulting in a mass strike in protest in Amsterdam and the surrounding area, afterwards known as the
February strike. In the Netherlands, the harsh suppression of the February strike in 1941 had a longlasting deterrent effect. Only after the large strikes in April and May 1943, when a growing number of
Dutchmen were obliged to go and work in Germany, did networks emerge to aid people go into hiding.
The majority of Dutch Jews had already been gathered up and transferred by that point. (Anne Frank
House, 2023)
4.2
Deportations
A deportation plan was devised in late 1941, calling for the evacuation of Jews from all provinces and
their concentration in Amsterdam. On January 14, 1942 this phase began by commencing with the town
of Zaandam. Dutch nationals among the Jews were ordered to relocate to Amsterdam, while stateless
people were transferred to the Westerbork camp. Other Jews were transferred to the Vught
concentration camp. Jews were obliged to wear a yellow Star of David at the end of April 1942. On
October 2, 1942, the Nazis deported 12,296 Jews. The rate of deportations was escalated in May 1943.
On September 3, 1944, the last train from Westerbork to Auschwitz left. During these two years,
107,000 Jews were transported, the majority of them were sent to Auschwitz and Sobibor. Only 5,200
survived.
However, one town had more Jews at the end of the war than it had before the Holocaust. According to
Herman Van Rens' research, the Jewish population of Limburg was 800 in 1933 but increased to 2,200
by 1945 as a result of an influx of German refugees before the war and Dutch attempting to flee the
Nazis after the German invasion. (Jewish Virtual Library, 2023)
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5
The life since Holocaust until now
After the war, Dutch society soon reverted to the pre-war pillarization systems. The Jewish community
reclaimed its place as a religious group within that pillarized society, and the traditional Jewish religious
communities reclaimed their previous roles as Jewish community spokesmen. The Jews were soon
starting to see themselves as international people with their own culture, thanks to Zionism. The idea
of Jews as an international people with their own culture was also closely linked to the idea of the
multicultural society that emerged in the Netherlands in the 1960s. The Jews became the part of
multicultural society and the prism through which the Dutch people looked at Jews shifted in way that
the Jews were not only seen as religious Jews, but the people saw their culture as an independent
component of their identity, which lead to many cultural initiatives.
Under the impact of developments in Anglo-Saxon countries, liberal Judaism, which was still a
marginal phenomenon in the Netherlands prior to the war, emerged into a popular alternative to
conventional Orthodox congregations after the war. Other Jewish movements that formed in the
Netherlands, however, established a foothold, including the considerably freer reconstructionist and
Jewish renewal movements, as well as the conservative/masorti - movements that lay midway between
orthodox and liberal. This led to creation of multiple Jewish groups and movements.
Despite all forecasts in the immediate aftermath of WWII, Jewish life in the Netherlands has grown in
size after 1945. That also applies to a degree to the Jewish people. According to the most recent
demographic study, the Netherlands is home to around 52,000 Jews, including the ones who have only
Jewish parents. The numbers have risen in recent years. Since the 1970s, the number of Israelis in the
Netherlands has grown to around 10,000, which means that one in every five Jews in the Netherlands
has an Israeli ancestor. Good to mention is also extent to which Jews in the Netherlands are linked with
a Jewish religious community. That only applies to 20% of them, far fewer than in the pre-war years.
(Waterman,2023)
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Conclusion
The research aim was of this paper was to tackle the cultural, societal and demographical changes in
Jewish community throughout the years. With that being said, the research question of this paper is:
“What kind of life did the Netherlands bring to the Jewish community?” The follow-up question to the
main question could be: “In which ways did the Jewish life change when they settled in the
Netherlands?” In this regard, this paper came to conclusion that the Netherlands provided Jews with a
stability of good, accepting life.
Having introduced many changes throughout the years, the Netherlands has always been an accepting
country. From the very start, they could get involved in the life pretty easily. Of course, there was not
a full emancipation, but the conditions for that were pretty positive, comparing to Slovakia, where many
Jews had to hide from the very start or get involved with another community to be implicated to the
society. The events of the World War II brought massive killings and losses, with Netherlands to have
the second biggest number of killed people, but soon after, they could restart with developing of their
community.
Last, but not least, this paper doesn’t cover all of the literature needed to understand how did the Jewish
life look like, neither the massive consequences of the World War II, but it could help to briefly
understand the Jewish community in the Netherlands.
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Frank
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(2021,
April
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1931- ‫בר‬-‫אפרת‬, ‫פנחס‬- author and Yad v ̣a-shem, rashut ha-zikaron la-Shoʼah v ̣ela-gevurah (2017)
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