Promoting Normal: Jewish Culture in Occupied Amsterdam
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PROMOTING NORMAL: JEWISH CULTURE IN OCCUPIED AMSTERDAM by Scott A. Swartsfager APPROVED BY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ___________________________________________ Nils Roemer, Chair ___________________________________________ Zsuzsanna Ozsvath ___________________________________________ David Patterson ___________________________________________ Peter Park Copyright 2019 Scott A. Swartsfager All Rights Reserved PROMOTING NORMAL: JEWISH CULTURE IN OCCUPIED AMSTERDAM by SCOTT A. SWARTSFAGER, BA, MA DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HUMANITIES – HISTORY OF IDEAS THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS May 2019 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge the Ackerman Center at The University of Texas at Dallas for their unwavering support during the years leading up to this dissertation. I came to this program with one year of funding, and through the immense generosity of the Belofsky Fellowship, I have been able to complete my PhD in the next four years with all expenses paid. I also gained invaluable experience as a research assistant. I would like to particularly thank Selwin Belofsky and David Ackerman for this opportunity. Next, I would like thank Dr. Nils Roemer, Dr. David Patterson, and Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsvath for their instruction, mentorship, and support during this process. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to sit at the feet of such wise and capable teachers. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Lori, for her undying support in both my military career and my venture into academia. She has moved with me more times than either of us can remember, but her unfailing optimism has never wavered. April 2019 iv PROMOTING NORMAL: JEWISH CULTURE IN OCCUPIED AMSTERDAM Scott A. Swartsfager, PhD The University of Texas at Dallas, 2019 ABSTRACT Supervising Professor: Dr. Nils Roemer Amsterdam is a unique city in Holocaust history. It was home to a thriving, highly-assimilated Jewish community, some of whom could trace their presence in the city back to the sixteenth century. Is also stands apart in the number of its Jewish residents murdered in the Holocaust: seventy-five percent compared to twenty-five in France. This study examines multiple aspects of the Dutch Holocaust and attempts to answer the question of why so many lost their lives. The dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 is essentially an urban history of Amsterdam, laying the foundation for its uniqueness in European history and chronicling the arrival of the first Jews to the city. Chapter 2 takes a closer look at the Jewish presence in Amsterdam from their first communities in the seventeenth century, to the eve of the German invasion in 1940. Here, we look at Jewish religious and secular culture, the growing divide between the Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities, Jewish social networks, and Jewish labor with its burgeoning ties to socialism. Chapter 3 begins with the German invasion in May 1940 and describes the crucial reaction of Jewish culture directly before and after the invasion. It also outlines the leadership and function of the German administration and Dutch bureaucracy in Amsterdam and goes into v more detail about the formation and function of the Jewish Council and their role in the first year of the occupation. In Chapter 4, I focus on the main deportations from July 1942 to September 1943 and the insistence of many on the Council and in the community to cling to an optimistic ideal of ‘resettlement’ and ‘labor relocation.’ Chapter 5 deals with Jewish resistance and hiding, looking particularly at the catastrophic dislocation and murder of children, as well as the heroic attempts to save them. Here, the narrative turns back to the city of Amsterdam during the “hunger winter” of 1944-1945 and the last days of the German occupation. The conclusion, then, sums up the ideas of Promoting Normal. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..............................................................................................................iv ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................................vii PROLOGUE: BENT BUT NOT BROKEN……………………...............……………..……..….1 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………...........………………..…......…9 CHAPTER 1 JERUSALEM OF THE NORTH…….............………....…...……………….….16 CHAPTER 2 JEWISH AMSTERDAM…….............…...…………..........…....………........…41 CHAPTER 3 OCCUPIED AMSTERDAM: JEWISH CULTURE IN THE MELEE............…63 CHAPTER 4 LEAVING AMSTERDAM: THE DEPORTATIONS……….............……..…..94 CHAPTER 5 BENT BUT NOT BROKEN: THE FINAL PICTURE……...........…….....…..126 CONCLUSION PROMOTING NORMAL……………………………….…...................…..152 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………….…............…………..157 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH………………………………….………….…...........…….....…166 CURRICULUM VITAE vii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1 Cornilius Anthonisz, Bird’s Eye View of Amsterdam.................................................19 FIGURE 2 Jacob Cornelisz, Amsterdam Miracle of the Host.......................................................25 FIGURE 3 Barend Dircksz, Wederdopersoproer.........................................................................28 FIGURE 4 Jan Voerman Sr, A Cloth Merchant in the Jewish Quarter, Amsterdam....................46 FIGURE 5 Max Liebermann, Jewish Street in Amsterdam...........................................................53 FIGURE 6 Cornelius Christiaan Dommershuizen, A View of the Jewish Quarter with the Oudeschans and the Montelbaanstoren, Amsterdam, 1886...........................................................54 FIGURE 7 Uilenburgerstraat, Jewish Quarter, Amsterdam, 1925...............................................56 . FIGURE 8 Early Twentieth-Century Amsterdam, Jewish Quarter...............................................57 FIGURE 9 Exclusion Form, 1940.................................................................................................74 FIGURE 10 Amsterdam Jewish Council.......................................................................................81 FIGURE 11 First Edition of Het Joodsche Weekblad...................................................................89 FIGURE 12 Het Joodsche Weekblad Advertisement Page...........................................................90 FIGURE 13 Roundup on Daniël Meijerplein................................................................................96 FIGURE 14 Map of Amsterdam with Jewish Sections in Black, 1941........................................98 FIGURE 15 The Jewish Quarter with Rembrandt’s House in the Background............................99 FIGURE 16 Jewish Identification Card.......................................................................................107 FIGURE 17 Simon Caun.............................................................................................................108 FIGURE 18 Jewish Council Identification Card.........................................................................112 FIGURE 19 Extra Edition of the Jewish Weekly.........................................................................116 FIGURE 20 The Joodsche Schouwburg Theater.........................................................................119 viii FIGURE 21 People in the Alley of the Schouwburg Theater, Awaiting Deportation.................119 FIGURE 22 Emmy Andriesse, Hunger Winter, Amsterdam, 1944-45.......................................143 FIGURE 23 Emmy Andriesse,Boy with Pan on His Way to a Soup Kitchen Food Distribution. Amsterdam, Spring 1945.............................................................................................................144 FIGURE 24 Emmy Andriesse, Liberation Party, Frederiksplein, Amsterdam, May 1945........146 ix PROLOGUE BENT BUT NOT BROKEN Abraham Van Santen sat in the attic and thought of Henri. It had been two years now since he had seen him. Henri had survived his arrest and incarceration in the city of Wassenaar but had gotten sick, and somehow had been released to his home in Laren. That was January of 1943, and Dutch Jews were hanging on by a thread. The Germans were stepping up deportations, hoping to fulfill Eichmann’s demand to the Foreign Office that they ‘evacuate’ 40,000 Jews from the Netherlands at a rate of 1,000 souls per day. They had started the previous summer and were using the large Shouburg Theater in the Jewish Quarter as a staging area from which to send men, women, and children to Westerbork and then on to their deaths at Auschwitz or Sobibor. The Jewish council was still putting a good face on things, of course, but even their exemptions were running thin. Abraham believed their optimism was not entirely feigned – most of them sincerely hoped that more Jews would be interned locally and used for labor. They continued to publish the Jewish newspaper and conduct business like things were more or less normal. But Abraham’s optimism had left him. He would work within the system, of course – what else could he do? But for now, he wanted to see his ailing friend, which meant that he needed to travel from Amsterdam to Laren, and for that, he needed the permission of the Jewish Council. As the youngest board member of the Joodsche Invalide, the Jewish Hospital in Amsterdam, Abraham had received a request