In Amsterdam alone more than eighty monuments have been created that have something to do with the persecution. In addition, there are still many locations that tell parts of the story of the persecution of the Jews; Buildings, squares and streets that were once the silent witnesses of the darkest page in the city’s history. The stories behind monuments and locations come together In Lotty’s bench. In 95 short stories it becomes clear how inextricably linked the city of Amsterdam still is with the history of the persecution of its Jews.
Lotty’s Bench
Gerben Post
In 1940, there were approximately 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands. 80,000 of them lived in Amsterdam, about ten percent of the city’s population. More than 75 percent of them - men, women and children - were deported to the concentration and extermination camps and murdered there.
Lotty’s Bench
Lotty’s Bench
Gerben Post
The Persecution of the Jews of Amsterdam Remembered
August 26, 1945: Lotty Veffer arrived in Amsterdam. She was the only member of her family to have survived the war. Her parents and younger sister Carla had been gassed in Sobibor. There was no heartfelt welcome for her, and eventually she was forced to spend her first night back “home” in Amsterdam on a park bench on the Apollolaan. In September 2017, the then 96-year-old Lotty was honored with her own monument, a bench on the exact same spot where she had spent that first night. This is only one of the many locations in the city that continues to remind us of the persecution of the Jews. Lotty passed away on Friday July 27, 2018.
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Colophon LM Publishers Parallelweg 37 1131 DM Volendam info@lmpublishers.nl www.lmpublishers.nl © November 2018 – LM Publishers, Volendam Text: Gerben Post Gerben is the creator of the Holocaust Memorial Walk in Amsterdam. For more information about this city walk, please go to www.postaboutthepast.com Translation: Tom Leighton Editing: Thecla Berghuis Design: Studio Rikkelman Production: High Trade B.V. Illustrations: Beeldbank WO2, NIOD: 25, 28, 32, 59, 81, 83, 85, 113, 146, 168, 170, 175, 191, 203 Beeldbank WO2, Joods Historisch Museum: 149 Collectie Anne Frank Stichting: 123, 126, 130, 132, 136, 138, 140 Collectie US Holocaust Memorial Museum Washington:30, 189, 210 Collectie Verzetsmuseum: 10, 38, 87, 120 Delpher: 27, 104 Gerben Post: 29, 40, 45, 49, 51, 55, 65, 76, 89, 97, 100, 111, 128, 132, 152, 154. 158, 187, 197, 200, 207, 209 Joods Monument: 181 Joods Monument, Joods Historisch Museum: 61, 69, 99, 102 Nederlands Fotomuseum: 109 NIOD: 142 Stadsarchief Amsterdam: 16, 47, 93, 166, 185, 193, 198 Veldman, Rogier (schilderij Max Nauta): 156 Volkskrant: 71 Wikipedia: 20, 36, 58, 91, 162, 164, 172, 205, 212 www.joodsmonumentzaanstreek.nl: 18 ISBN 978 94 6022 499 7 The publisher has tried to find all owners or proprietors of the photographs featured in this book. If you feel that this has been done inadequately, please contact the publisher.
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Lotty’s Bench The Persecution of the Jews of Amsterdam Remembered
Gerben Post
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Introduction 1. The Thirties 1 Lloyd Hotel 2 The Zuideinde house 3 Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer
2. Tensions rise 4 5 6 7
Alcazar Waterlooplein Koco ice cream parlor, Rijnstraat Koco ice cream parlor, Van Woustraat 8 Jonas Daniël Meijerplein
3. The February strike 9 Noordermarkt 10 Strike!!! Strike!!! Strike!!! 11 The Dokwerker
4. ‘Forbidden for Jews’ 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Concertgebouw building The Bijenkorf Apollohal Lippmann Rosenthal & Co. Monument Nieuwe Passeerdersstraat Stadsschouwburg Wertheimpark W.H. Vliegenbos Albert Cuyp market Jewish market at the Waterlooplein Jewish market at the Joubertstraat Children’s monument in the Gaaspstraat
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8 14 16 18 20 23 25 27 29 31 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 60 61 62
Index
5. Segregation in Education 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
Herman Elteschool First Montessori School Wilhelmina Catharinaschool 43 Children J.C. Amman School for deaf children Montessori Lyceum Vossius Gymnasium (Latin school) Barlaeus Gymnasium Amsterdams Lyceum (High School) Jewish Lyceum
6. The beginning of the deportations 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
Central Station Monument for deported Jews Jewish Council Headquarters Hollandse Schouwburg Hollandia Kattenburg The world remained deaf Municipal archives Portuguese-Israelite Hospital
7. The healthcare institutions 42 Nieuwe Herengracht 33 43 Memorial Dutch-Israelite boys’ orphanage 44 Dutch-Israelite girls’ orphanage 45 The Jewish Invalide
8. Going into hiding 46 Alcazar 47 Hiding photo 48 Transit address Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 49 Artis
63 65 66 67 68 69 71 73 74 75 76
78 80 81 83 85 87 89 91 93 95 97 99 102 104 106 108 109 111 113
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7 50 51 52 53
Walter Oettinger ’t Mandje Hiding place of Max Vogel Saint George and the dragon
9. Anne Frank 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62
The Frank family’s apartment Sixth Montessori School Jewish Lyceum Going into hiding Van Pels family residence Fritz Pfeffer’s residence The Secret Annex Miep Gies’s residence National Institute for War Documentation
10. The Resistance 63 64 65 66 67 68 69
Attack on the resident registry Walter Süskind Bridge The school for teachers Monument for Eli van Tijn Plaque for Gerhard Badrian CS-6 Group 2000 temporary headquarters 70 Monument to Jewish resistance
11. Nazis and collaborators 71 NSB Headquarters 72 Amsterdam residence of Seyss-Inquart 73 Police station Linnaeusstraat 74 Police Battalion Amsterdam 75 Puls Moving Company 76 Kolonne Henneicke headquarters
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115 117 119 120 123 126 128 130 132 134 136 138 140 142 144 146 149 151 152
Index 77 Dentist’s office of H.E.B. de Jonge Cohen 78 Dries Riphagen’s residence 79 Jeanne Valkenburg’s residence 80 Decoy address Jekerstraat 81 Residence of Lodewijk Johan Strak
12. The final round-ups 82 83 84 85 86
13. After the war: return and remembering 87 88 89 90 91
153 155 156 158 160 162 164 166 168
Jewish Council Headquarters Plaque Beethovenstraat Polderweg Monument Transvaal Quarter Muiderpoort Station
92 93 94 95
Portuguese Synagogue Central Station Lotty’s Benche The Bureau OPK National Monument at Dam Square Monument at the Weesperstraat Stolpersteine Plaque for the Kok family and the Shadow Wall Never again Auschwitz
174 175 177 179 181 183 185 187 189 191 193
195 197 198 200 203 205 207 209 210 212
Epilogue
215
Acknowledgements
217
Bibliography
219
170 172
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Lotty’s Bench / Introduction
Introduction August 26, 1945: Lotty Veffer arrived in Amsterdam. She was the only member of her family to have survived the war. Her parents and younger sister Carla had been gassed in Sobibor. There was no heartfelt welcome for her, and eventually she was forced to spend her first night back “home” in Amsterdam on a park bench on the Apollolaan. In September 2017, the then 96-year-old Lotty was honored with her own monument, a bench on the exact same spot where she had spent that first night. This is only one of the many locations in the city that continues to remind us of the persecution of the Jews. When the German army invaded the Netherlands in the night of May 9 to 10, 1940, the country changed for good. The Dutch army held on for four days, but after the bombardment of Rotterdam on the 14th of May, it had to capitulate. The Netherlands was forced to acknowledge the superiority of the mighty German army and was occupied by their neighboring country. A new era began, an era of National Socialist domination and suppression that would last for five years. Needless to say, the Jews who lived in the Netherlands entered a state of panic when the country was occupied. Through the press, the German anti-Semitic policies of Adolf Hitler’s National Socialism had become a well-known fact. Furthermore, large groups of German Jews had already sought refuge from Germany on the other side of the border in the Netherlands. The 140,000 Jews who lived in the Netherlands therefore knew their lives were going to be very difficult as long as they had to live under the yoke of the German rulers.1 Many of them looked to the future with great fear, witness the large number of escape attempts and suicides. Jewish cemeteries are the silent witnesses of these suicides. There many tombstones are to be found, with May 15 and 16, 1940, as dates of death engraved on them, along with large cemetery monuments holding the names of entire families 1
Herzberg, A., Kroniek der Jodenvervolging, 1940-1945 (Amsterdam, 1950), 17.
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Lotty’s Bench / Introduction
who took their lives at the same moment.2 The fear the Jews in the Netherlands felt was far from unfounded. Already within a few months after the country was occupied, the Nazis began their policies of excluding the Jews from Dutch society. The first anti-Jewish measures the Nazis implemented were still relatively innocent, but, as of the fall of 1940, it gradually became clear they were not inclined to leave the Jews alone. Jewish civil servants were fired from their jobs; Jews were not allowed to own businesses anymore; and brawls with Jews as the main target occurred more frequently. In the year 1941, Jews were no longer allowed to enter public spaces like cinemas, restaurants, markets, or parks. Later Jews had to hand over their bicycles and telephones, and they were no longer allowed to use public transport. In their identity cards a J for Jew was stamped in bold. The most famous, or rather most notorious, anti-Jewish measure was implemented in May 1942. At the beginning of that month, every Jew six years of age and older was forced to wear a bright yellow star on their clothes.3 The stigmatization was complete. However, no one could ever have suspected that all this would be an omen for the deportation to, and annihilation of the Jews in Poland. Camps like Auschwitz and Sobibor that were in part or in their entirety designed to murder the Jews of Europe were beyond people’s imagination. Of the 140,000 Jews who lived in the Netherlands in 1940, only some 38,000 would still be alive after liberation in May 1945. Around 102,000 Jews were deported to Eastern Europe from the Netherlands and would never return.4 The great majority of Jews living in the Netherlands resided in Amsterdam. Approximately 80,000 people, making up some ten percent of the Amsterdam population. In January 1940, Dutch Jews were forced to register themselves as Jewish. Compliance was huge. 2
Presser, J., Ondergang. De vervolging & verdelging van het Nederlandse Jodendom. 1940-1945, part I (Den Haag, 1965), 10, 14. 3 Website Kamp Westerbork: www.kampwesterbork.nl. 4 Presser, J., Ondergang, part II, 509.
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Lotty’s Bench / Introduction
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Lotty’s Bench / Introduction
Almost all the Jews in the Netherlands registered, because what would happen to them if they didn’t? This meticulous registration of the Jews made it much easier for the occupying forces to implement the antiJewish measures. After registration, Amsterdam civil servants were commissioned to map where in Amsterdam the Jews lived. The result was a map of the city measuring one by one meter. On this map, dots were applied, one for every ten Jews. This dotted map clearly shows how large the Jewish community of Amsterdam was and also in which parts of the city they mainly lived: the old Jewish quarter in the center, the Rivierenbuurt (River Quarter) in Amsterdam South, and in the Transvaalbuurt (Transvaal Quarter) in Amsterdam East.5 Of the 80,000 Amsterdam Jews, more than 75 percent would be murdered during the war. More than 60,000 people would never return from the Nazi camps. It is not surprising that today there are still many places to be found all around the city that still remind us of the persecution, deportation, and annihilation of the Jews. In Amsterdam alone, there are more than eighty monuments that have something to do with this persecution. Often they are plaques to commemorate murdered pupils of schools or employees of companies or services, plaques to commemorate occurrences or to honor individuals, whether victims or saviors; in total, over eighty monuments, if what are known as “stumbling stones” (in Amsterdam over five hundred of these exist) are considered as just one single monument. Besides monuments, there are still many locations in the city that tell us part of the story of the persecution of the Jews: buildings, streets, and squares that were once the silent witnesses of the darkest page in the history of Amsterdam. Many of the locations and monuments that have something to do with this persecution have blended into their environment. They do not immediately tell us their story. One can easily walk past Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) or 5
“Stippenkaart met de verspreiding van Joden in Amsterdam omstreeks 1941,” at www.niod.nl.
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Lotty’s Bench / Introduction
the Memorial located at the Amstel River without noticing them. The same applies to plaques, facade bricks, or, for example, the former headquarters of the Jewish Council. Once one discovers them, though, it is virtually impossible not to see them anymore. In this book, the stories that belong to more than ninety of these locations and monuments will be told. Maybe, after reading this book, the reader will stop when passing one of these monuments or locations, stop for just a minute or so, and for just a brief moment commemorate what happened there. The thirteen chapters in this book each have their own theme. The chapters have been placed in chronological order, as far as that was feasible, starting with the large streams of German Jewish refugees in the thirties and ending with the return of survivors from the camps or their hiding places, and finally the way the victims were commemorated. The chapters themselves all begin with a historical introduction to their theme, followed by anecdotes involving the background of the locations and monuments. Some of the locations will show up twice in different chapters. Central Station, for example, is important as part of the theme of the first deportations and as one for the return of the few survivors of the camps. The Jewish Lyceum (high school), both in the segregation within education as well as in the story of Anne Frank, and the headquarters of the Jewish Council at the Nieuwe Keizersgracht, which is both important in the chapter about the first deportations and in the one about the final roundups. There is a story behind each location or monument: an emotional story, a story about a heroic person or event, but sometimes also a story that might bring a smile to one’s face. All of them are worth the time and energy of being told. These stories are brought together in this book. On the basis of different locations and monuments, different aspects of the persecution come to light. The reader will likely come across gaps in the story of the persecution. A large number of locations that in principle would have been worth talking about no longer exist in
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Lotty’s Bench / Introduction
the physical form they once had: A large part of the old Jewish quarter, for example, is now the Stopera, the building complex housing the city hall and the music theater. Buildings that were demolished after the war are not included in this book; only locations and monuments still visible or that one can touch right to this day are mentioned. Therefore, the reader, or possibly the city hiker, can still “feel” this part of history, which is still present everywhere. This book, therefore, does not provide a complete history of the persecution of the Jews during the war. However, it does give the reader a clear idea of what the Jews had to endure right before, during, and after the Occupation. It shows how inseparable the city of Amsterdam still is from the history of the Second World War and the persecution of its Jews. After the war, Lotty committed herself to making sure we will never forget what happened to the Jews during World War Two. Until a very old age, she kept telling her story and that of her family. On Friday July 27, 2018, Lotty passed away, aged 97. She can no longer tell her own story. Lotty’s story and those of many others have been recorded in this book, to keep alive the memory of the persecution of the Jews.
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Lotty’s Bench / The Thirties
1. The Thirties Not long after his appointment as Reich chancellor of Germany in January 1933, Adolf Hitler began to suppress his domestic enemies. The first anti-Jewish measures were implemented, and that same year approximately five thousand German-Jewish refugees crossed the Dutch border in search of a safe haven. The result, according to the Dutch government, was a serious refugee problem.6 To cope with the biggest and most pressing problems vis-à-vis the refugees, the Comité voor Bijzondere Joodse Belangen – the committee for Jewish interests – was created. Led by diamond merchant Abraham Asscher and Professor David Cohen, the committee had to find an appropriate answer to the persecution of the German Jews and see to it that the reception of the refugees was taken care of.7 Estimates of the total number of refugees – first from Germany but later from Austria as well – between 1933 and 1939, who would go on to stay in the Netherlands, vary. It would most likely have been around 24,000, with most settling in Amsterdam.8 Among the large number of refugees were groups of children that constituted a problem all on their own. They had often been sent to the Netherlands without their parents, or, if they had come to the Netherlands with their parents, the parents then ended up unable to take care of them. Many German-Jewish children were consequently placed in orphanages.9 The November pogrom of 1938 (Kristallnacht) resulted in a change in attitude on the part of the Dutch government towards the Jewish 6
Bossenbroek, M., De meelstreep. Terugkeer & opvang na de Tweede Wereldoorlog (Amsterdam, 2001), 32-34. 7 Michman, J., et al., Pinkas. Geschiedenis van de Joodse gemeenschap in Nederland (Amsterdam, 1985), 153, 155, 167. 8 Hondius, D., Terugkeer. Antisemitisme in Nederland rond de bevrijding (Den Haag, 1990), 37. 9 Michman, J., et al., Pinkas, 156.
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Lotty’s Bench / The Thirties
refugees. During the night of the pogrom, more than two hundred synagogues in Germany and Austria went up in flames, Jewish shops and houses were destroyed, and tens of thousands of Jews were arrested and imprisoned in camps. The Dutch government now realized something had to be done and arranged for a large refugee camp for those refugees who stayed in the Netherlands legally. It was to be built in the province of Drenthe, near the village of Westerbork. During the war, this camp would be used as a collecting point for more than 100,000 arrested Jews. From here, they would then be sent to the death camps in Poland. Salient detail: The cost of building the Westerbork camp was billed to the Dutch-Jewish community.10
10
Bossenbroek, M., De meelstreep, 37.
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Lotty’s Bench / Oostelijke Handelskade 34
1 Lloyd Hotel A total of 25 refugee camps were built for refugees who came to the Netherlands. Westerbork is the best known of them, but the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam was also turned into one of these camps, with room for approximately three hundred people. In the Lloyd Hotel, there was a continuing coming and going of refugees. Some stayed for only a few days, while others stayed for a longer period of time. One group of refugees became quite well known. They were the Jews who had fled Germany from the port of Hamburg
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Lotty’s Bench / Oostelijke Handelskade 34
aboard the ship The St. Louis. They had first tried to find refuge in Cuba, after which they made another attempt in the United States, but both countries had denied them entrance. Because of that they had had no other choice but to return to Europe. In August 1939, it was decided that everyone had to leave the Lloyd. The hotel had to be evacuated for a possible mobilization of the Dutch army in the run up to war. By August 23, most refugees had left the hotel, with their destination often being Westerbork. The last family to leave the hotel left in July 1940, also with that same destination.11
11
Stigter, B., De bezette stad. Plattegrond van Amsterdam 1940-1945 (Amsterdam, 2005), 147. www.joodsamsterdam.nl.
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Lotty’s Bench / Zuideinde 433
2 The Zuideinde house Between 1933 and 1939, 75 Jewish refugees from Germany and Eastern Europe passed through the house at Zuideinde 433 and the nearby municipality of Oostzaan. Thirty of these 75 refugees found a temporary shelter in this house. Some of them managed to leave for safer countries before the war broke out in the Netherlands. Others did not survive the persecution during the Occupation.
Fajga during her stay at Zuideinde, together with two neighbor children
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Lotty’s Bench / Zuideinde 433
Two of the thirty temporary residents of Zuideinde 433 were Fajga Rozenszajn-Korn and her son Leo. In the course of their escape from Germany, Fajga had become separated from her husband Jacob and Leo; it would take months before they would find each other again. By the end of 1938, Jacob and Leo had ended up in the Netherlands, where they too became separated from each other. Leo was placed in an orphanage and Jacob in the detention house at the Amsterdam Weteringschans. It was only in July 1939 that Fajga managed to reach the Netherlands herself, but it would be over a year before she would finally have her son with her again. Fajga attempted to emigrate to the United States, together with her family, but was told that she would have to wait for at least six months, maybe even a year. During those six months waiting to emigrate, the Netherlands was occupied by the Germans. Their chances of leaving for America then vanished. Fajga presumably moved in to Zuideinde 433 in May 1940. Leo would come and live there later as well. The Rozenszajn family would eventually be reunited in Westerbork but would not survive the war. Jacob died on July 3, 1944, somewhere in Central Europe. What is known about Leo is that he was murdered in Auschwitz, only four days after his father had died. He was only nine years old. When or where Fajga died is not certain, although one may assume she was murdered together with her son on July 7, 1944, in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.12
12
Roemer, P., 40-45 in Noord. Herinneringen in Amsterdam-Noord aan de bezetting (Amsterdam, 2005), 49. www.joodsmonumentzaanstreek.nl.
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Lotty’s Bench / Bachplein
3 Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer One could say that Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer had already become a war hero before the war had even begun. In the months prior to the outbreak of the war, Truus, a social worker with good connections within the ComitĂŠ voor Bijzondere Joodse Belangen, had managed to
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Lotty’s Bench / Bachplein
take slightly less than 10,000 German and Austrian Jewish children to safety in England. This was preceded by negotiations with Adolf Eichmann in Vienna. Eichmann made a bet with her. He promised to “give” her the 10,000 children if she could manage to get six hundred of them on a ship to England within the six days after their meeting. Truus’ good connections and her ability to act quickly met with success. Truus won the bet and Eichmann kept his promise, most likely contentedly rubbing his hands, because he had managed to get rid of 10,000 Jews that easily. The outbreak of the war on September 1, 1939, however, threw a monkey wrench into the works. The promised number of 10,0000 children was met but only barely. The moment war broke out in the Netherlands, Truus was staying in a hotel room in Paris. She had just managed to take the little Jewish girl Ilse to Spain and was now on her way back to Amsterdam. Around three o’clock in the morning, the hotel’s doorman barged into her room. “The Germans have invaded your country,” he gasped. Truus proceeded to stay in bed and miserably drank a whole bottle of wine. That same evening, though, Truus managed to continue her journey back to the Netherlands. It would take her three days to reach home, but when she did, she received the message that she had to take 75 German-Jewish children from the Burgerweeshuis – the civil orphanage – to the harbor in Ijmuiden as fast as she could to get them on a ship to England. Truus quickly arranged five busses and, together with the children, she drove to IJmuiden. There she was confronted with the chaotic scene of people desperately trying to get on one of the ships. Truus took “her” children aboard the ship De Bodegraven. They at least were now protected from the Nazi terror that would swallow up the Jews in the years to come. In 1965, bronze bust of Truus was unveiled in the Beatrixoord, a health resort in the Oosterpark in Amsterdam. When the resort closed
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Lotty’s Bench / Bachplein
down, Truus took the statue home where she kept it until her death in 1978. Nowadays the bust is located on the Bachplein in AmsterdamSouth. After “Auntie Truus” – as she was often called by many of the children she had saved – had passed away, an obituary stated that she was: “Mother of 1001 children, who had made the rescue of Jewish children her life’s work.”13
13
Wijsmuller-Meijer, T., Geen tijd voor tranen (Amsterdam, 1961). De Jong, L., Het koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, deel 3, 411-412. www.4en5mei.nl.
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Lotty’s Bench / Tensions rise
2. Tensions rise The lives of the Jews in the Netherlands did not change very drastically in the first few weeks after the country was occupied. However, as of June 1, 1940, the occupiers gradually started to implement the first anti-Jewish measures. As of that date, the Jews were no longer allowed to work in the air protection services. Two months later, religious Jews were affected when a ban on ritual slaughter was issued. In November of that same year, each Dutch civil servant was required to fill out a form, in which they were required to declare that neither they themselves, nor their spouses had Jewish parents or grandparents: the so-called Ariërverklaring, the Aryan declaration. The result was that, shortly after having filled out the form, Jewish civil servants, professors, and teachers were first made to leave their workplaces, only to be fired a few months later.14 Many Dutch gentiles were deeply shocked by these first antiJewish measures. Who would have ever thought that restaurants and cafés would have signs that stated “Forbidden for Jews” or “Jews Not Wanted” in a country that had always been very tolerant? The occupiers had managed to create two artificial groups within Dutch society: Jews and non-Jews.15 As of January 1941, German and Dutch Nazis received permission to attack Jews in the streets and on public occasions. In that month, and the months that followed, there were many brawls with a strong anti-Semitic character in different Dutch cities.16 Moreover, events where Jews were violently removed from trams in Amsterdam or where the windows of cafés and restaurants were smashed, because they had many Jewish regulars, now became more frequently. Often non-Jewish
14
Romijn, P., “De oorlog (1940-1945),” in J.C.H. Blom et al., Geschiedenis van de Joden in Nederland (Amsterdam, 1995), 317-318. 15 Sijes, B., De Februaristaking. 25-26 februari 1941. (Amsterdam, 1954), 18-19. 16 De Jong, L., Het koninkrijk, part 4 (Den Haag, 1969-1991), 814.
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Lotty’s Bench / Tensions rise
customers fell victim to this violence as well.17 The old Jewish neighborhood in the center of Amsterdam, in the area around Waterlooplein, was home to some 28,000 Jews and approximately 24,000 gentiles, many of whom had family members and friends in other parts of the city. Furthermore, many dockworkers passed through this neighborhood on a daily basis on their way to work in the Amsterdam harbor. They were not inclined to abandon their Jewish colleagues, and, together with their Jewish comrades, they resisted the provocations of the Weerbaarheidsafdeling (WA), the uniformed and militant unit of the Nationaal Socialistische Beweging (NSB) – the Dutch National Socialist Movement.18
17 18
Sijes, B., De Februaristaking, 66. De Jong, L., Het koninkrijk, part 4, 818.
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Lotty’s Bench / Thorbeckeplein 5
4 Alcazar On Sunday, February 9, 1941, around half past four in the afternoon, the Alcazar cafĂŠ was very crowded. Contrary to the will of the Germans, Jewish cabaret artists still performed in this public venue, and the owner, Dirk Vreeswijk, had refused to put up a sign that Jews were not
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Lotty’s Bench / Thorbeckeplein 5
wanted. When the doorman of the café saw a group of about sixty WA men walk towards Alcazar, he quickly locked the door. The WA men were in no mood to let him get away with this and started smashing the windows of the café. Even a bicycle was thrown through the window. They eventually managed to force the door and invade the establishment. Once inside, guests were beaten up, and the furniture was smashes to pieces. Not a single wineglass went unbroken. The Amsterdam police tried to intervene but were stopped by the German police, who backed up the WA men in their raid against the café and its owner.19
19
Herzberg, A., Kroniek, 109. De Jong, L., Het koninkrijk, deel 4, 817-818. Sijes, B., De Februaristaking, 70. Stigter, B., De bezette stad, 129.
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