History of the Jews in the Netherlands

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The history of the Jews in the Netherlands describes the development of Judaism in what is now the Netherlands . It can be traced back to the time around the birth of Christ and was often marked by persecution and oppression. In modern times, the Holocaust , which is also taking place in the Netherlands, represented a turning point for the Jewish community.

Beginnings up to the Middle Ages

Burning of the Jews during the plague epidemic of 1349

It is considered likely that the first Jewish immigrants came to the “lower lands” - besides the Netherlands also today's Belgium - around the time of the Roman conquests around the year 1 BC. Reached around. Little is known about these people, but it is certain that they did not immigrate in large numbers. For some time the Jewish presence therefore consisted of small, isolated communities and scattered families. Reliable sources usually date from the 11th century at the earliest, when today's Netherlands was part of the Holy Roman Empire . Already from this time there are reports that people identified as Jews were regularly exposed to persecution and displacement. Early sources from the 11th and 12th centuries attest to conflicts between Christians and Jews and attempts at conversion to Christianity . There is evidence of a group of Jews settling in the 's-Hertogenbosch area in 1164 . A few years later these people were murdered by burning on the Vughtse Heide . This represented the first known mass murder of Jews in the lower lands.

From the 13th century, Jewish people lived in the duchies of Brabant and Limburg , where they lived in significant numbers, especially in the larger cities such as Brussels , Leuven , Tienen and Maastricht . Sources from the 14th century also report Jewish residents in the cities of Antwerp and Mechelen as well as in the northern part of the Duchy of Geldern . In 1309 110 Jewish refugees from Sittard and Susteren who had sought refuge in a castle there were killed in Born in South Limburg . This was set on fire and the refugees murdered. During the plague epidemic of 1347-1349, the Jews were accused of being responsible for the outbreak of the disease by poisoning public wells. The Jews were suspicious because they did not use these water sources because of their religious rules. Jews were also affected significantly less often, which was probably due to the cleaning regulations prescribed by their religion. At the time, however, the connection between poor hygiene and the spread of the plague and other diseases was still unknown. Jewish people were driven away or killed as scapegoats during the plague, in some towns along the IJssel as well as in Arnhem , Nijmegen and Utrecht all Jews living there were burned alive until 1349.

Due to the special legal situation applicable to Jews in the Holy Roman Empire - they did not officially serve any local prince and "belonged" directly to the emperor - they could be obliged to carry out certain activities. These were used in many places to collect taxes, which also contributed to the unpopularity of the Jews with the rest of the population. In the 15th century the situation of the Jews in the lower lands improved slightly. So-called "Judenbriefe" ( Jodenbrieven in Dutch ) were issued, which allowed the Jews to act as lenders.

In contrast to other European countries, Jews in today's Netherlands did not have to live in separate parts of the city, nor did they have to wear a visible label. Nevertheless, they had to live with certain restrictions. For example, many professions were forbidden for Jews. Likewise, they were not allowed to express themselves about Christianity and only marry other people of the Jewish faith.

Early modern age

Sephardic migration routes from Portugal and Spain, including what is now the Netherlands

It was not until the end of the 16th century that large groups of Jews began to migrate to the Netherlands. These were initially Jews from Spain and Portugal , called Sephardim , who were on the run from the Spanish Inquisition , which gave them the choice of either converting to Catholicism or leaving their homeland. Many of them relocated to North Africa or the Ottoman Empire , but a smaller number also turned north and initially found refuge in Amsterdam in particular. At the beginning of the 17th century the first cities in Holland were settled: As the first Dutch city administration, the City Council of Alkmaar officially issued a so-called "Jewish regulation" (Dutch jodenreglement ) in 1604 , thereby officially allowing the influx of Jewish people. As long as these immigrants behaved correctly, they could live out their faith in freedom. However, they were prohibited from marrying Christians or attempting to convert Christians to Judaism. Similar tolerant regulations were also laid down in Haarlem (1605) and Rotterdam (1610) in the following years . However, severe criticism of these regulations came from strictly Calvinist Amsterdam. Council pensioner Johan van Oldenbarnevelt approached his Rotterdam counterpart Hugo de Groot , the author of the Rotterdam Jewish Ordinance , as well as the Amsterdam pensioner Adriaan Pauw , to jointly draft a Jewish ordinance for the whole of Holland. This attempt failed, however, and the city of Amsterdam issued its own regulations in 1616. The belief in the Jewish religion was tolerated in these, but any expression of this belief was prohibited.

Interior view of the Portuguese-Israelite Synagogue in Amsterdam. Painting by Emanuel de Witte , circa 1680, from the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Since they were still forbidden from joining a guild - and thus de facto taking up many professions - many Jews were still active as traders and merchants in the 17th century. Due to numerous trade contacts in their countries of origin Spain and Portugal, a certain number of them were economically well positioned. Among other things, the Sephardi financed trips by the Dutch East India Company and appeared as the house bankers of the House of Orange . In this position, some of them benefited significantly from the cultural and economic heyday of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, known as the Golden Age . Yet many less successful Jews were forced to make ends meet as peddlers or day laborers . Around 1700, the city of Amsterdam had the largest Jewish community in Western Europe with around 10,000 members. The Sephardic descent of many Jews was still easy to recognize from surnames such as “Pereira”, “Cardozo”, “del Castilho”, “Nunes”, “De Pinto” or “Vas Dias”.

The 17th century saw the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), one of the high points of the persecution of Jews in Europe. As a result, many Jews from the Holy Roman Empire and Eastern Europe fled to the safer Netherlands. These people, known as Ashkenazim , were mostly poorer than their Sephardic co-religionists and from then on hired themselves primarily as day laborers or peat cutters in rural areas, in traveling trade, as butchers or cattle dealers. At first they still had surnames like “Polak”, “Hamburger”, “Bremer”, “Moszkowicz” and “Van Praag”, and later they often chose new names that were regularly based on animals or fruits. Some examples are "De Hond", "De Haan", "Schaap", "Appel" or "Citroen". Both groups initially lived largely isolated from one another. In Amsterdam, for example, there were separate synagogues for the Sephardi and Ashkenazim.

French time

At the beginning of 1795, an invasion of the French army during the First Coalition War ended the existence of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, which was then replaced by the Batavian Republic, which was dependent on France . Not long after the arrival of the French, a small group of Jews, led by the cocoa dealer Mozes Salomon Asser , founded a so-called "Patriot Club " in Amsterdam. Under the name Felix Libertate (for example: "Happy through freedom") they propagated equal rights for all Jewish citizens in the Netherlands. The time was right for such an endeavor, one which the new regime had already broken with many established traditions. In order to gain appropriate attention for their concerns, the Libertate members repeatedly complained to the members of the National Assembly . On September 2, 1796, this legally put Jews on an equal footing with members of other denominations. It stipulated that no Jews should be denied the rights enshrined in the Batavian civil law. In the same year, the ban on membership in a guild was lifted. The decision of the National Assembly must be seen against the background of French influence that exported the ideals of equality of the French Revolution to France's satellite states . The passing of this decree represented an important step in the emancipation process of the Dutch Jews, but it was by no means complete. The civil equality brought further advantages especially to already wealthy and socially better-off male Jews. For women and the great mass of the so-called " Lumpenproletariat " these improvements almost completely bypassed them. Before the law, Jews were now on an equal footing with other Dutch people, but in practice this was by no means always reflected: Even in Amsterdam, the only Western European city that had allowed the immigration of Jewish people without restrictions before the French Revolution, the unequal treatment was still there always clearly noticeable. At least sixty percent of the Jews lived in whole or in part from poor relief .

Following the transformation of the Batavian Republic into the short-lived Kingdom of Holland , its king Louis Bonaparte viewed the Jews as part of the "Dutch nation" and thus no longer as an independent community. In 1808 he bundled the Jewish communities through the establishment of a so-called " upper consistory ". After the end of the Kingdom of Holland and the creation of its successor state, the Kingdom of the United Netherlands , its King William I formed this consistory in 1814 into the "Main Commission for the Affairs of the Israelites". The consistory was later divided into a separate Dutch-Israelite denomination for the Ashkenazi Jews and a Portuguese-Israelite denomination for the Sephardic Jews. Although there was still some separation between the Ashkenazim and the Sephardic, the income gap between the two groups had narrowed. After the end of the Golden Age, the Sephardi were basically poorer and the Ashkenazim became somewhat richer. In the 19th century, most of the members of both groups still belonged to the economically weakest stratum of the population. Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews interacted more and began to marry one another more often.

Since 1811, Dutch Jews were also required to take a surname. In principle, this could be freely chosen, but place names from the Holy Land were excluded . In addition, a new translation of the Bible was commissioned that would be acceptable to both Jews and Christians. In order to promote their integration, Jews were advised against using Yiddish in everyday life.

Jewish emancipation

Along with the economic and technological progress of the 19th century, a Jewish middle class began to establish itself from around 1850. A well-known example was the Polish entrepreneur Abraham Icek Tuschinski , who worked his way up from a simple tailor to the owner of several cinemas. Around 1900, the rise of socialism and the trade union movement began to attract many Jews. In particular, the diamond cutter Henri Polak made a name for himself at this time as the founder of the Dutch Social Democratic Workers' Party and for many years chairman of the influential Algemene Nederlandse Diamantbewerkersbond union . This served as a model for the modern Dutch trade union movement after the Second World War .

The Communist Partij van Nederland under the Jewish leader Paul de Groot also attracted many Jewish members during these years. The Zionism , the creation of a Jewish national state in Palestine demanded, but found few followers in the Netherlands. There were, however, various training centers for pioneering work in Palestine, as well as a Zionist youth organization. The direct participation of the labor movement accelerated the emancipation process of the large group of impoverished Jews. The introduction of universal suffrage for men and women in 1919 marked the end of this long process.

Refugee Migration in the 1930s

Celebration of the 300th anniversary of the main Dutch-Israelite synagogue in 1935

As a result of the Nazis' seizure of power in the neighboring German Reich in 1933 and the adoption of the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Race Laws two years later, a steady stream of Jewish refugees began to flow into the Netherlands. Until 1935, the Netherlands had a liberal admission policy that made it possible for refugees to obtain asylum quite easily . In the face of this influx of refugees, however, the government tightened the requirements: Only wealthy Jewish refugees were admitted without any problems, while others had to prove that they would be exposed to an imminent threat to their lives if they returned to their place of residence. However, this proof was difficult to provide, so that only a few German Jews could legally enter the country. The government under Prime Minister Hendrikus Colijn justified its reluctance primarily with the rampant unemployment and the country's high population density, even without massive immigration. In addition, the fear of further fueling of anti-Semitism, which is also emerging in the Netherlands, played a role. In the run-up to the war, the Netherlands tightened the admission requirements even further and the border was finally closed to Jewish refugees. The annexation of Austria to the German Reich in 1938 and the November pogroms of the same year led to an even larger influx of Jewish refugees. In May 1938, Justice Minister Carel Goseling stated that Jews would henceforth be regarded as "undesirable foreigners". Despite these adversities, it is estimated that around 35,000 to 50,000 Jewish people immigrated to the Netherlands by the beginning of the war.

In November 1938, Anton Mussert , founder and chairman of the fascist Nationaal-Socialistische Bewegungsing (NSB for short), brought up a plan to create a new home for Jews in South American Guiana . Although it was not implemented, the post-war plan inspired the equally unsuccessful “ Saramacca Project ” of the Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonization, which planned to settle 30,000 Jewish refugees in Suriname .

holocaust

Dutch Jews are deported from the Westerbork transit camp to the Auschwitz concentration camp (1942 or 1943)

During the Second World War, the hopelessly inferior Dutch armed forces were defeated by the German Wehrmacht and the country was forced to surrender. The country was occupied by German troops and, as of May 29, 1940, was placed under civil administration as the Reich Commissioner of the Netherlands . Its leadership under Reich Commissioner Arthur Seyß-Inquart soon began to initiate various discriminatory measures against the Jews, including professional and study bans as well as de facto expropriations. In July 1942 the occupiers finally began to deport all Jews in the Netherlands who they could get hold of via the Westerbork transit camp to the extermination camps in the east. In order to track down Jews in hiding, the Germans carried out regular raids in Amsterdam and other large cities from 1942 onwards . They were supported by Dutch collaborators such as members of the German-friendly NSB. Of the estimated 140,000 “ full Jews ” who lived in the Netherlands in May 1940, around 101,800 lost their lives by the end of the war. This corresponds to a share of around 73% of the Jewish population, which is extremely high compared to other occupied countries in Europe.

post war period

The few Jews who returned from the concentration camps after the war were often severely traumatized. To make matters worse, they were now mostly destitute and robbed of their possessions. In many cases, their pre-war apartments were now inhabited by others, which is why many of them initially had to stay in reception camps and first have to look for new accommodation. Legal conflicts regarding stolen Jewish property sometimes continued into the 21st century. A resumption of studies or a return to the previous job was often impossible or difficult. Under these circumstances, a significant part of the Dutch Jews decided to emigrate to the newly founded Israel .

One of the numerous memorials in honor of the victims of the Holocaust in the Netherlands ( Winschoten , Province of Groningen ). Winschoten was particularly hard hit by the Holocaust, 88% of the local Jews did not survive the war.

In numerical terms, the Jewish community has never been able to recover from the devastating turning point that the Holocaust represented. A 2000 census by the Joods Maatschappelijk factory found that between 41,000 and 45,000 people of Jewish descent lived in the Netherlands. There were also around 10,000 Israeli Jews who were in the country to study or to work. Every person who had at least one Jewish parent was included in this count. The Jewish religious laws, according to which only people with a Jewish mother themselves are considered Jews, did not apply here. Originally non-religious converts were also counted.

Even today there are occasional anti-Semitic incidents in the Netherlands. The controversial policy of the State of Israel is usually seen as the trigger for this. The Foundation Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Israël found in an annual study a general increase in anti-Semitic incidents in recent years. Correspondingly, some devout Jews state that they no longer feel safe at all times, especially in the capital Amsterdam, where the majority of Dutch Jews live.

literature

  • Hans Blom, Rena Fuks-Mansfeld, Ivo Schöffer: Geschiedenis van de Joden in Nederland . Balans, Amsterdam 1995, ISBN 90-5018-296-8 .
  • Isaac Lipschits: De kleine Sjoa: Joden in naoorlogs Nederland . Mets & Schilt, Amsterdam 2001, ISBN 90-5330-310-3 .
  • Jonathan Israels: European Jewry in the age of mercantilism, 1550-1750 . Van Wijnen - Franeker, Franeker 2003, ISBN 90-5194-222-2 .
  • Ludo Abicht: Geschiedenis van de joden van de Lage Landen . JM Meulenhoff, Amsterdam and Antwerp 2006, ISBN 90-8542-042-3 .

Web links

Commons : Judaism in the Netherlands  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chris Quispel: Anti-Joodse beeldvorming en Jodenhaat . Lost, Hilversum 2015, ISBN 978-90-8704-549-4 , p. 41 .
  2. ^ Rien Wols: Joden in Brabant. In: bhic.nl. Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum, 11 May 2010, accessed 22 January 2019 (Dutch).
  3. ^ Roel Jacobs: A divorcee van Brussel . 5th edition. Lannoo, Tielt 2006, ISBN 90-209-5269-2 , pp. 63 .
  4. ↑ Massamoord op joden in Born in 1309. In: graetheidecomite.nl. Graetheide Comite, accessed May 14, 2019 (Dutch).
  5. ^ Enne Koops: De pest in Europa (1347-1352). In: historiek.net. November 21, 2016, accessed May 14, 2019 (Dutch).
  6. ↑ Joden in de Middeleeuwen ( Memento from March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on January 22, 2019 (Dutch)
  7. ↑ Vierhonderd años Joden in Nederland. In: jck.nl. Joods Cultureel Kwartier, accessed May 14, 2019 (Dutch).
  8. ^ WJM van Eysinga: De Groots Jodenreglement . In: FM van Asbeck (ed.): Sparsa Collecta, een aantal of the promised written van Jonkheer Mr. WJM van Eysinga . Sijthoff, Leiden 1958, pp. 423-429 .
  9. ↑ a b Frank Kromer: Kleurrijke aft names. In: niw.nl. Nieuw Israëlietisch Weekblad, September 3, 2013, accessed May 15, 2019 (Dutch).
  10. ↑ Pierre Birnbaum, Ira Katznelson: Paths of Emancipation - Jews States and Citizenship . Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 1995, ISBN 0-691-03460-5 , pp. 43-44, 51 .
  11. ^ Joodse divorced from Amsterdam. In: joodsegeschiedenisamsterdam.nl. Retrieved May 15, 2019 (Dutch).
  12. ↑ 1808: Opperconsistorie. In: joodsecanon.nl. Retrieved May 15, 2019 (Dutch).
  13. ↑ Harmen Snel: aft name in Amsterdam (3). De Portugezen . In: Mijspoge . tape 23 , March 2010, p. 91-97 .
  14. ↑ Over Abraham Icek Tuschinski. In: joodsmonument.nl. April 7, 2016, accessed May 15, 2019 (Dutch).
  15. ↑ 1894: Oprichting Algemene Nederlandse Diamantbewerkersbond. In: joodsecanon.nl. Retrieved May 15, 2019 (Dutch).
  16. ↑ Jozien J. Driessen: Joods Communisme. In: nrc.nl. December 28, 2002, accessed May 15, 2019 (Dutch).
  17. ↑ De gelykstaat the joden. Inburgering van een minority 179-1919. In: jck.nl. Joods Cultureel Kwartier, accessed May 15, 2019 (Dutch).
  18. ↑ Katja Happe: Many False Hopes - Persecution of Jews in the Netherlands 1940-1945 . Ferdinand Schöningh, 2017, ISBN 978-3-506-78424-7 , pp. 15-22 .
  19. ↑ Dan Michman: The Jewish Emigration and the Dutch Reaction between 1933 and 1940 . In: The Netherlands and German Exile 1933–1940 . Athenaeum, Königstein 1982, ISBN 978-3-7610-8173-0 , p. 73-90 .
  20. ^ Edwin Klijn, Robin te Slaa: Anton Mussert en de NSB. In: histornieuwsblad.nl. Historisch Nieuwsblad, May 2015, retrieved on 15 May 2015 (Dutch).
  21. ↑ Alexander Heldring: Freeland League. In: heldring.com. November 25, 2010, accessed May 15, 2019 .
  22. ^ Lucy Dawidowicz: The War Against the Jews . Bantam, 1986, ISBN 978-0-553-34532-2 .
  23. ↑ Terugkeer. In: joodsmonument.nl. Joods Cultureel Kwartier, April 27, 2016, accessed November 13, 2018 (Dutch).
  24. ↑ Joodse oorlogsgetroffenen krijgen ieder 14,000 guilders ( Memento of May 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 14, 2019 (Dutch)
  25. ↑ Joods Maatschappelijk Werk ( Memento from February 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 14, 2019 (Dutch)
  26. ↑ Aantal anti-Semitic incidents in Nederland sterk gestegen ( memento of April 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on May 15, 2019 (Dutch)
  27. ↑ Mirjam Remie: Voelen joden zich nog veilig in Amsterdam? In: nrc.nl. January 30, 2015, accessed May 15, 2019 (Dutch).