One theory is that the Germans made use of the administrative organizations and Dutch police: When the Dutch recognised German persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands, they conducted the first act of mass civil disobedience in occupied Europe during WWII: the Februaristaking (" February strike"), to show their support for Jewish citizens. All Dutch citizens were obligated to "register" and undertake work in Germany. The average citizen of the Netherlands was unaware of the operation of "death camps" for the majority of the occupation. Also, the civil administration had detailed records that indicated the numbers of Jews, and where they lived. The country did not have much open space or woods for people to flee to. Most Jews in Amsterdam were poor, which limited their options for flight or hiding. It was the most densely inhabited country of Western Europe, making it difficult for the relatively large number of Jews to go into hiding. The Netherlands was not under a military regime. įactors that influenced the greater number of people who were murdered included that the governmental apparatus was relatively intact after the royal family and government fled to London. Some 75% of the Dutch-Jewish population was murdered in the Holocaust, an unusually high percentage compared with the other occupied countries in western Europe. The number of "half Jews" who survived in the Netherlands at the end of the Second World War in 1945 is estimated to be 14,545 the number of "quarter Jews" was 5,990. The exact number of "full Jews" who survived the Holocaust is estimated to be 34,379 (of whom 8,500 were part of a mixed marriages, and thus spared deportation and possible murder in the Nazi concentration camps). In 1945, only about 35,000 Jews of the Netherlands were alive. Jewish woman wearing a yellow Star of David during the razzia of 20 June 1943 North Holland – 87,026 (including 79,410 in Amsterdam). The census in 1941 indicates the geographical spread of Dutch Jews at the beginning of World War II (province number of Jews – this number is not based on the racial standards of the Nazis, but by how people identified in the census): In 1941, most Dutch Jews were living in Amsterdam. Some 2,500 persons who were counted in the census as Jewish were members of a Christian church, mostly Dutch Reformed, Calvinist Reformed or Roman Catholic. Some 6,000 persons reported having one Jewish grandparent. Some 19,000 persons reported having two Jewish grandparents (it is generally believed a proportion of this number had three Jewish grandparents, but declined to state that number, for fear that they would be classified as Jews rather than half-Jews by the Nazi authorities). In the Nazi census, some 121,000 persons declared they were members of the (Ashkenazi) Dutch-Israelite community 4,300 persons declared they were members of the ( Sephardic) Portuguese-Israelite community. The Nazi occupation force estimated the number of (racially) Dutch Jews in 1941 at some 154,000.
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