The German Occupation and the Persecution of the Jews in Diemen
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The German occupation and the persecution of the Jews in Diemen The role of the municipal administration, collaboration and labour camp Betlem Roos Smit 5957249 MA thesis in History - Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Amsterdam Supervisor: Dr. K. Berkhoff Second reader: Prof. Dr. Johannes ten Cate June 2018 2 Content 1. Introduction 2 2. The Municipality Diemen: the mayor 7 2.1 Mayors 8 2.2 Mayor de Geer van Oudegein before the occupation 10 2.3 In charge of mayors: secretary-General K.J. Frederiks 12 2.4 Mayor de Geer van Oudegein during the occupation 14 2.5 The destruction of the Diemerkade 17 2.6 Mayors of Diemen after de Geer van Oudegein 19 3. The Municipality Diemen: the municipal secretary 21 3.1 The diary of Mr. van Silfhout 21 3.2 Other acts by Mr. van Silfhout 25 4. Mr. F.B. Schröder 28 4.1 Mr. Schröder 1879-1940 28 4.2 Mr. Schröder 1940-1945 29 4.3 Mr. Schröder 1945-1949 35 5. Betlem 42 5.1 Labour camps 42 5.2 Labour camp Betlem 48 6. Conclusion 55 7. Bibliography 58 7.1 Resources 58 7.2 Literature 59 1 2 1. Introduction Diemen, a small municipality under Amsterdam, believes that they have always had a special relationship with the Dutch Royal House of Orange. Queen Wilhelmina loved to meander in Diemen and Prince Bernhard crashed his car there. From 1899 onwards Diemen held the Oranjefeesten: multiple days of festivities mostly for the Diemer children.1 In this thesis, we will see that many protagonists from Diemen share that loyalty to the house of Orange. Within the Diemer municipality many loved the house of Orange and supported it openly. This is perhaps one of the reasons that many within the municipal administration supported the resistance in Diemen, direct or indirect. Both the mayor and the municipal secretary were known orangists. The other municipal civil servants gave the mayor a drawing of Diemen with a patriotic text saying that they hoped the mayor could soon receive the good wishes for the Royal House.2 Diemen today is a municipality of around 35.000 inhabitants.3 In 1935 that number was around 5500. Both today and in 1940 life in Diemen was tied to the proximity of Amsterdam. Most of the inhabitants came from Amsterdam originally, especially after the steam train to the Gooi had a stop in Diemen. Furthermore two important transport canals the Muidertrekvaart and the Weespertrekvaart pass Diemen. Pillarization could be seen in the education in Diemen: Diemen had two catholic schools, one protestant and one secular.4 Life in Diemen was enriched by a healthy amount of organizations to spend ones leisure time. Diemen boasted several secular organizations, such as an ice club, an orchestra and a committee for children's parties. In the 1920s the pillarization of Dutch society could also be seen in the leisure organizations in Diemen: several catholic and some protestant organizations were started. The catholics started a temperance society, a theater society, several youth organizations, a mens singing choir, a library, a construction workers union, a sports association, a housing association and a small firms and traders association. At the same time the new protestants organizations were similar: a singing choir, a girls, boys and a mens organization. Then the secular group founded a checkers club, a sports club, a pigeon enthusiasts club, three theater societies, a cabaret and a show band. As one can see, leisure time for the 5500 inhabitants of Diemen was filled with a variety of different activities. As different as the activities and clubs were, the love for the house of Orange could be felt in Diemen everywhere. It is perhaps due to this love that many key 1 https://pubblestorage.blob.core.windows.net/16c0059b/pdf/diemernieuws18jul13.pdf, Diemer Newspaper, (Consulted 1 of May 2018) 2 Historische Kring Diemen, Taco ten Dam, Diemens oorlog: Drie burgemeesters in oorlogstijd, (2015), 262-263 3 http://www.diemerkrant.nl/2017/05/27/diemen-groeit-naar- 35 -000-inwoners/, Diemer Newspaper, (Consulted 26 of December 2017) 4 C. van der Heijden, Grijs Verleden: Nederland en de Tweede Wereldoorlog (2008), 220 3 figures in the Dutch resistance could be found in Diemen as well, and that the municipal organization indirectly supported them.5 To discuss Diemen during the Second World War, we are going to use some standard works in Dutch history. Loe de Jong’s het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog and Jacques Presser’s Ondergang are both useful for general information about the German occupation. Mr. Presser received the assignment to document the persecution and mass murder of the Jews from the RIOD [Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, later NIOD, Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie]. The book was based on hundreds of files and dozens witnesses.6 A similar enormous task was Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog. While this multi- volume book is a more general academic overview of the occupation, it also has a less moralistic tone than Ondergang. As this thesis will focus more on the regional level I needed academic information about this aspect as well. Marnix Croes and Peter Tammes wrote Gif laten wij niet voortbestaan, in which they compare Dutch municipalities and the survival rates of Jews. Peter Romijn focused on the mayors of the Netherlands in Burgermeesters in Oorlogstijd, besturen onder Duitse bezetting. He shows the pressures that a mayor faced during the occupation and criticizes the stay-to-prevent-worse attitude of many mayors and Secretary-General of home Affairs Frederiks. We will use this book for our chapter about the mayor of Diemen and the situation that was trust upon him when the Germans attacked. As for Diemen itself, we will rely on J.F. Reurekas, author of Diemen 1940-1945, Diemen in oude ansigten and Kent u ze nog…de Diemenaren. Diemen 1940-1945 is our main source and was written as an assignment for the municipality Diemen in 1985. Mr. Reurekas was a historian who lived in Diemen and collected pictures of Diemen during the Second World War in his own time. 7 The second main source for Diemer history is Diemens oorlog: Dorp bij Amsterdam onder Duitse bezetting by the Historische Kring Diemen. Written by a number of amateur and professional historians, most notably Taco ten Dam, Alfred Bakker, Jaap Haag and Henk Teiwes, the book uses information from the Diemer archives and the inhabitants of Diemen itself. The superintendent of the Diemer archives, Tamme Stallinga, assisted the writers. Diemens oorlog has wildly varying chapters concerning everything from inundation to doctors and religion: the link connecting them all are the memories from old Diemer residents.8 Naturally I will also extensively use the Diemer Archives which are placed inside the city hall of Diemen under supervision of Mr. Stallinga. I 5 C. van der Heijden, Grijs Verleden, 246 6 https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/1999/05/14/j-presser-ondergang-1965-7446883-a560587, article in the NRC, by Roelof van Gelder, 14th of May 1999, (Consulted 17 of May 2018) 7 J.F. Reurekas, Diemen 1940-1945, (1985), 64 8 Historische Kring Diemen, Willy Bulterman-Hartsink, Ellen van Meurs, Diemens oorlog: Herinneringen van enkele Diemenaren, (2015), 41 4 looked into archive numbers 3146, 3167, 3170, 3735, 3755, 3756, 4473 and most of all the diary of M. van Silfhout. Mr. van Silfhout was municipal secretary from 1925 until 1964 and his diary spans from 1938 until 1945.9 The same archives are used in chapter 4: archive number 3756 concerning the behaviour of residents is invaluable. These archive pieces detail the correspondence that Mr. Schröder has had with the Diemer municipality after the war. Moreover, they hold police statements and evidence concerning Mr. Schröder’s behaviour during the occupation. The diary of Mr. van Silfhout is used as well, as the municipal secretary had meetings with Mr. Schröder. In chapter 5 this thesis concentrates on the land plot Betlem first, which can be found in an article made by the Historical Society of Muiden. As such a society focuses mainly on local history we can use their article concerning Betlem because Muiden is very close to the area as well. For the general information about labour camps I use the previously mentioned Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog by L. de Jong and Ondergang by J. Presser. Another often used source is Diemens Oorlog from the Historical Society in Diemen, from which we will use the chapter concerning Betlem: Een joods werkkamp op de plaats van het voormalig paradijselijke ontspanningsoord. As this thesis also tells the story of two inmates from labour camps Betlem, Max Nunes Nabarro and Levie de Lange, we need sources on their lives as well. For Max Nunes Nabarro, most information came from the website of the Jewish Monument in the Zaanstreek. For this subject I also used Diemens Oorlog. As we continue with history on a local level we will look at another primary source as well: Levie de Lange wrote a book about his time before, during and after the war. This book, Het verhaal van mijn leven, is used extensively in chapter 5. The purpose of this thesis is to look at the different aspects of the German occupation and the subsequent persecution of the Jews in Diemen. To do this, we need to discuss both the inhabitants of Diemen that resisted and the ones that collaborated with the Germans. Moreover, it is important to look at the Jewish people themselves: Diemen had a labour camp at Betlem where Jewish people were put to work on building a dike.