Attack on the Amsterdam residents' registration office

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Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 0.4 ″  N , 4 ° 54 ′ 44.6 ″ E The attack on the Amsterdam residents ' registration office  (Dutch: Population Register Amsterdam ) was carried out on March 27, 1943 in Amsterdam at Plantage 36 Kerklaan by a group of Dutch people Resistance fighters led by Gerrit van der Veen and Willem Arondeus . This should strengthen the Dutch resistance groupsandsabotage forced labor and the persecution of Jews .

background

With the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, the identification requirement was introduced, and in 1941 ID cards with passport photo and fingerprint were added. The corresponding registry documents facilitated the control of identity cards, the conscription of forced labor and the deportation of Jews , Sinti and Roma . In the residents' registration office in the former Artis concert hall in Plantage Kerklaan 36, the Amsterdam register documents for personal identification were centralized.

Gerrit van der Veen had set up the underground organization Persoonsbewijzencentrale (PBC), which by the end of the war supplied the underground with a total of 80,000 forged identity cards and, in addition, with captured real identity papers. The planned attack was not only intended to destroy a large part of the inventory in the registration office, but also to send a signal of protest, which other resistance groups should follow.

attack

Under the leadership of Gerrit van der Veen and Willem Arondeus, a group of around ten resistance fighters - some in Dutch police uniform - overpowered the security guards at the Amsterdam population register on the night of March 27, 1943 in order to destroy the documents there. Most of the card index was destroyed by the attack. The fire brigade , which was called in and knew about the importance of the register, delayed the extinguishing work and additionally damaged the files through excessive use of extinguishing water. 800,000 resident cards were destroyed, 600 blank ID cards and 50,000 guilders stolen and those involved escaped.

persecution

Memorial plaque at the former residents' registration office

A reward of 10,000 guilders was offered to the perpetrators and most of the people involved were arrested and convicted of treason. On June 18, 1943 Willem Arondeus, Johan Brouwer , Sam van Musschenbroek, Karl Gröger , Henri Halberstadt, Rudi Bloemgarten, Auguste Chrétie Reitsma, Cornelis Roos, Sjoerd Bakker, Cornelis Leende Barentsen and Coos Hartoch were sentenced to death and on July 1, 1943 executed. Gerrit van der Veen could go into hiding, but was later arrested on June 10, 1944 executed . Frieda Belinfante was able to go into hiding by disguising herself as a man.

Web links

literature

Barbara Beuys: Life with the enemy - Amsterdam under German occupation 1940–1945 , Hanser, 2012, ISBN 9783446240711 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ De Aanslag op het Amsterdamse Bevolkingsregister , Verzetsmuseum Amsterdam, accessed February 16, 2016
  2. ↑ a b Registration Office , Remembrance in Benelux, accessed February 16, 2016
  3. ^ Willem Arondeus on Yad Vashem, accessed March 16, 2016