The text of this article corresponds with the radio program broadcast which can be heard through Front Page Jerusalem. Go to FPJ archives: This week in Israel’s History and then to “February Strike”.
February Strike
On February 25, 1941, in Amsterdam, Holland, a general strike took place in protest of the brutal treatment of the Jews.
Ever since the 16th century the Netherlands, or Holland, had became home for Jews who had been forced to flee the Spanish Inquisition. By the end of the nineteenth century the Jewish population was completely integrated into Dutch secular society.
Between 1939 and 1940 Jewish refugees, fleeing Nazi Germany, swelled the ranks to 140,000, or 1,6 percent of the total Dutch population.
After the German Invasion in May 1940, the Dutch people tried to go on with their life as much as possible and at first nobody noticed the subtle changes by which the Dutch Jews became more and more segregated.
Jewish civil servants were fired, and the Germans forbade protesting newspapers and churches to mention anything in connection to Jewish issues.
After Jewish professors were dismissed, and staff and students dared to protest, the Germans closed the Technical High School of Delft.
Before the war, the NSB, the Dutch Nazi party had established a defence section, the so-called Weerbaarheids Afdeling, or W.A. in order to protect her leader against attacks from political rivals.
Now, feeling protected by the Nazi occupiers, while loudly singing provocative Nazi songs, the street fighters on purpose marched through Jewish neighbourhoods.
On other occasions they picked fights with café owners who refused to place the “forbidden for Jews” sign in their windows.
In the middle of February 1941 a group of these hoodlums marched over the predominantly Jewish Waterloopplein market and began to fight with bludgeons, iron bars and truncheons. Because the Dutch police and Germans didn't provide any protection against these gangs, the Jews had formed fighting squads to protect themselves. Helped by non-Jewish residents from nearby neighbourhoods these squads carried primitive weapons like canes and iron chains.
That day, the 40 Dutch Nazis were welcomed by a Jewish strong-arm-gang and pelted with bottles filled with bleach. Fighting was short, but heavy. Hendrik Koot, a notorious Dutch Nazi, was mortally wounded and died 3 days later. The Nazis used his death as an excuse for an “Aktion”, an action.
Ever since the 16th century the Netherlands, or Holland, had became home for Jews who had been forced to flee the Spanish Inquisition. By the end of the nineteenth century the Jewish population was completely integrated into Dutch secular society.
Between 1939 and 1940 Jewish refugees, fleeing Nazi Germany, swelled the ranks to 140,000, or 1,6 percent of the total Dutch population.
After the German Invasion in May 1940, the Dutch people tried to go on with their life as much as possible and at first nobody noticed the subtle changes by which the Dutch Jews became more and more segregated.
Jewish civil servants were fired, and the Germans forbade protesting newspapers and churches to mention anything in connection to Jewish issues.
After Jewish professors were dismissed, and staff and students dared to protest, the Germans closed the Technical High School of Delft.
Before the war, the NSB, the Dutch Nazi party had established a defence section, the so-called Weerbaarheids Afdeling, or W.A. in order to protect her leader against attacks from political rivals.
Now, feeling protected by the Nazi occupiers, while loudly singing provocative Nazi songs, the street fighters on purpose marched through Jewish neighbourhoods.
On other occasions they picked fights with café owners who refused to place the “forbidden for Jews” sign in their windows.
In the middle of February 1941 a group of these hoodlums marched over the predominantly Jewish Waterloopplein market and began to fight with bludgeons, iron bars and truncheons. Because the Dutch police and Germans didn't provide any protection against these gangs, the Jews had formed fighting squads to protect themselves. Helped by non-Jewish residents from nearby neighbourhoods these squads carried primitive weapons like canes and iron chains.
That day, the 40 Dutch Nazis were welcomed by a Jewish strong-arm-gang and pelted with bottles filled with bleach. Fighting was short, but heavy. Hendrik Koot, a notorious Dutch Nazi, was mortally wounded and died 3 days later. The Nazis used his death as an excuse for an “Aktion”, an action.
A few days later, very early in the morning they cordoned off the Old Jewish Neighbourhood from the rest of the city by putting up barbed wire, pulling up bridges, and putting police checkpoints. The "Juden Viertel" now comprised of more than 25.000 Jewish people, and became off-limits for non-Jews.
A few days later the Germans undertook a large scale razzia. Under the eyes of their horrified wives and children, 427 men between 18 and 35 were brutally beaten, arrested and sent to their deaths in Buchenwald and Mauthausen.
The people of Amsterdam were in shock.
On the evening of February 24, a group of 250 people, belonging to the Dutch communist party, called for a general strike.
Very early the next morning, the 25th of February, at the entrances to factories, wharves and tramway depots, stencilled pamphlets were distributed, protesting the awful persecution of the Jews.
"Strike, strike, strike!" it said, and thousands of Amsterdam workers began to show solidarity with the Jewish population. Trams and trains stopped riding, factories and department stores emptied of workers. The strike even spread to other cities.
Surprised and shocked by the behaviour of the, until then, subdued and cooperative Dutch population, the Germans quickly found their bearings, and broke the strike with bloody force. They killed nine people, badly wounded twenty four, and imprisoned and tortured 22 in the infamous Lloyd Hotel. Many striking workers were dismissed and the municipality of Amsterdam staggered under a fine of 15 million guilders.
The Nazis executed a few of the Communist leaders, together with other resistance fighters. It was a sad ending of that first large-scale act of resistance against the German occupiers of Holland.
It was outrage at the brutality against their fellow Amsterdam citizens, which prompted the Communists to call for that general strike on February 25, 1941.
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