Dutch
Tzedakah
Stories of “Righteous Ones” in the Netherlands
during World War I
Chapter
10
The
Dockworker
By
1939, thousands upon thousands of German Jews had fled across the border into
the Netherlands.
The Dutch Government unable to absorb so many refugees set up a special camp at
Westerbork near the German border. The Nazis would later use this camp as a
transport point to the death camps.
To
begin with, many Dutch Jews believed that things would work out for them in the
end. Had the people of the Netherlands
not protected them so long? Gradually however, they began to realise the bitter
truth that soon it would no longer be capable of doing so.
The
first anti-Jewish measures were
introduced slowly, but without respite. In September 1940, Jews were forbidden
to enter certain residential areas and were refused work in a number of
professions. Then in October, all civil servants had to make a so-called
declaration of Aryan descent. All Jewish
public servants and teachers were dismissed. In January 1941, compulsory
registration of all Jews commenced. At the same time, cafes, theatres, and
other public places were out of bounds to all Jews. Signs were erected “Voor Joden Verboden - Forbidden to
Jews.”
Sadly
due to the poverty prior to the war, even Holland
had its own “National Socialist Movement” better known as the
N.S.B., which was led by the sinister Anton Mussert. Even though the N.S.B. represented
only a minority, but now Nazi Germany controlled the nation, the N.S.B.
suddenly had great power. Most members originally joined the N.S.B. to combat
Communism, little realising the true and full meaning of Nazism. Patriotic
Dutch men and women regarded the N.S.B. as the “Traitor's Party.”
The evil traitor Mussart saluting his
followers
Now, Jewish
youngsters were being attacked by the “Nazi
youth movement,” which was part of the N.S.B., just as it was in Germany. The Jewish quarter was constantly being
terrorised, however the Dutch police were completely helpless, for German law
encouraged it.
A well known Jewish
ice cream parlour, “Koko” was attacked on 12 February 1941. Dutch
customers, including several police officers, doctors, and others resisted
bravely. Seven days later, another ice cream parlour belonging to Mr. Ernst
Cahn was singled out and attacked by members of the N.S.B. He defended himself
by throwing ammonia in the face of one Nazi. A bitter struggle ensued,
resulting in eight arrests. Mr. Cahn received the expected Nazi justice. In
their perverted “Kangaroo
Court” he was sentenced to death. Mr. Ernst Cahn, who was
ruthlessly attacked in his own store by the Nazis, ended up as the first Jew to
officially to die by Nazi hands in the Netherlands. Others who were
arrested received long prison sentences.
Some members of the N.S.B. were as fanatical as
Hitler himself. With actions that were extreme and violent, proving that they were
the servants of evil, always ready to obey their Fuhrer, who was their lord and
master. At the end of the war, they would be punished with severity, a severity
befitting their hideous crimes against Dutch Jews, and the general Dutch
population alike. One such traitor serving with the Waffen SS on the Russian
front wrote the following letter to a like-minded Dutch Nazi back home, who was
part of the “Arnhem Storm
Troopers.”
“How are things with
your Jews? This place (Russia)
is crawling with them, though I do not think many will be left by the time the
war is over. There has been a lot of cleaning up, and I myself have shot down a
whole plague of them ... I only hope to get the chance of leading a group of
comrades when we start rooting out the Jewish vermin back home. They won't know
what hit them.” February 1942.
The
WA, the Para-military arm of the N.S.B. now attacked the Jewish neighbourhood on a daily
basis. This forced both Jews, and non-Jews, to form their own protection
squads, often recruiting members of the Jewish
sport and boxing clubs “Maccabi”
and “Olympia.” On 11 February 1941, a
serious battle broke out and a WA man by the name of Koot was seriously injured
and died a few days later. Whenever a WA man died, the Nazis were ruthless in
retaliation.
Without warning, on
Saturday 22 February 1941, being a Sabbath day, the Hebrew quarter was
surrounded and completely sealed off. Soldiers bashed down doors, and took men
and boys at random. Four hundred and twenty five males were taken captive, and
marched to the Jonas Daniel Meijer
Square. Here in the shadow of five ancient
Synagogues from where Hebrew prayers and songs of praise to God had wafted
across the square for centuries, the Nazis herded the Jews like cattle, and
beat them without mercy for all to see. They were then forced into trucks and
taken away. This horror was repeated the next day during the Sunday street
markets. Hundreds of Jewish men
and boys were deported during these two dreadful days, to concentration camps
at Buchenwald and Mauthausen where they
perished in the most horrific of circumstances.
Captured male Jews face down as seen at the Jonas Daniel Meijer Square on Saturday 22
February 1941
The
good people of Amsterdam
were in a state of shock and the city was charged with fury by these events. “Something must be done!”
shouted the angry masses, but what? Amsterdam
was like a bomb about to explode any minute. It was the Dutch Workers Party who
was the first to call for action, and they did this by calling a “General Protest Strike.”
Their first attempt was to be on Monday 24 February, but this sadly failed. At
another meeting that very night, an official announcement was made, “Tomorrow 25 February (1941) we will
strike.” Then on Tuesday morning the strike was on and it spread
rapidly and became a general strike. That afternoon Amsterdam felt like a free city. Railway men,
dockworkers, tram conductors, shipbuilders, factories, all were at a standstill
and it kept spreading.
A call to “STAAK!!!” –
“STRIKE, STRIKE, STRIKE”!
The
strike spread to other cities and towns throughout the Netherlands.
Masses were marching in the streets calling for justice, saying, “Germany, you cannot harm our
people, be it a Jew or a Gentile, and get away with it. Our voice will be
heard!” By now shops, offices and schools were deserted. Even
banks closed their doors in support. The Dutch police defiantly stood by
without taking any action. All too soon, the Nazis recovered from their initial
shock and reacted with all their might.
Soon
guns were blazing in the streets, firing at demonstrators. Many were arrested.
Nine brave lives were lost that day in Amsterdam,
and two more in town of Zaandam.
Municipal workers were now threatened with severe punishment, thus most were
eventually forced back to work.
What
did the strike achieve? Nine dead and four strikers were sentenced to death as
well as many others imprisoned. Slowly, those who were sympathetic with the
Germans replaced mayors of towns and cities throughout the Netherlands.
The Dutch Workers Party strike was the first of its kind, and it made clear the
mind of the vast majority of the people of Holland. Sadly, it was not able to prevent
future deportation of Jews to the hideously insane Nazi death camps. Yet, the
strike was not altogether futile, for it stirred the spirit of a strong
resistance in the Netherlands.
The people were united (except for a
few extremists) in their rejection of National Socialism, and
anti-Semitism. It is well recorded that the Netherlands was the only nation in
the world to make such a dramatic statement in defence of its Jewish population.
We
now turn to the Remembrance of the Netherlands of the heroic strike as
above. The Netherlands
did this by the erecting a rather special statue; it is a statue of an everyday
Dutchman during the war. This memorial is known as “The Dockworker.”
A Strong Man says,
“No!”
In
1987, the author visited the Netherlands
whilst researching this book, spending a great deal of time in the old
Jewish quarter. One day I visited the Jonas
Daniel Meijer Square. There under some old trees
stands a man made of bronze. He is big and heavy. It is obvious that he is a
strong man. He stands quite still with his left foot forward, and his arms
hanging down. It is almost if he is ready to fight. His head is slightly tilted
back, as he is making a statement. Just look at his cap and his clothes they
are worker's clothes. His sleeves are rolled up over his strong muscles. You
can see he is not an easy-going man. He is a man who is not afraid, and he is
not going to take tyranny any longer. He will not bow down or be held back by
these German oppressors. This statue says a great deal about the resistance of
the Dutch people, against Nazism. He is the “Dockworker.”
The Author, as he looked o
a cold December day, in 1987 on the Jonas
Daniel Meijer Square –
A sketch by Kosta Specis --
The
Dockworker tells you, that everyday people could no longer put up with Nazi
discrimination against their Dutch Jewish brethren, and that his patience was
up. He throws down his work, for he had enough of being a slave. Thus he
strikes. That strike began on 25 February 1941. And there was a mighty reason
for it, the very same reason one of Pierre Janssen’s teachers did not
teach one day, because Mr. Bendien was sacked just he was a Jew. As Pierre said, “Are Jews not Dutch, like any other
Dutchmen? Are they not our fellow countrymen?” The sad fact was
that Germans, and their Dutch followers placed their faith in just one man who
gave them his, and his parties might and strength. Adolf Hitler was an Austrian
Roman Catholic, who in his youth had dabbled in the occult, and had hated the
Jews. Jews had never hurt him in any way. They were being punished just because
they were Jews. That day in February, when they tortured those poor Jewish men
and boys, the tolerant people of Amsterdam and
the Netherlands
lost their patience. They fought back the only way they could as they laid down
their jobs and told the Germans, “We
won't stand for it!” Thus this statue, the Dockworker stands
proudly in the very heart of the old Jewish quarter of Amsterdam, under the shadow of the ancient
Synagogues, and at the very spot where those four hundred and twenty five lives
were beaten and taken to the Nazi deaths camps.
The
following is based on an item written by Rabbi Dr. J. Soetendorp, entitled, “The Dockworkers Prayer.”
“The
square is framed with seventeenth century gables and quaint windows. Once,
behind these, the soul of a people prayed till they could no more, a people
that around this square were able to live out their dream of freedom, until,
just where I am standing, their young sons were forced and beaten mercilessly
to the ground. The walls of these Synagogues bear the testimony for they saw it
… Then I a Dockworker, stood up. I, who had never prayed, not in a
Church, let alone a Synagogue. But, I rolled up my sleeves, with my cap tilted
on the back of my head and said, ‘Come, here I am going to make my stand,
and I will stay. For your evil unjust ways shall never know peace.’ This
is the prayer of my hands, that which my heart could not do. Nazis, possibly
this was the prayer you were waiting on, to commence your song of curses, your
chosen tune … It bounced against the ancient walls. You have awoken the
prayerful. Your madness is like an echo, but only an echo no more! Soon your
racing vehicles will be gone from our streets. However, I will remain standing,
here amongst the Synagogues. Otherwise we will soon forget that once, wild
animals walked upon and tortured our people ... The people of Israel who made
our country their home … The sounds can The sounds can still be heard,
amongst these old trees, and in the Synagogues.”
The Dockworker with the Portuguese
Synagogue behind him on the Jonas
Daniel Meijer Square
In
the last chapter, we met Pierre Janssen, He told me the story, of how in his
household often strangers would come and stay.
Pierre
Janssen continues his story.
“Once
a young man came to stay with us, and he had to share my bed with me. He was
friendly but never said very much. A few months later, after he had left our
house, our local paper arrived. The paper was now under the control of the
Germans who would have us believe that they were going to win the war. We were
always fearful of reading the page that had a thick black band around it. On
this page, the Nazis announced the death, or execution of resistance fighters
and others. The black band ensured that its readers would not miss it. They
even pasted the page on walls and billboards throughout Amsterdam as a scare tactic. However, scare
tactics never did much for the Dutch.
As
mother opened the paper that day, she read the list. She tearfully pointed out
two notices, for there was the announcement of a man we knew. She cried out “That was dear Kees.” Indeed,
it was the kindly young man I shared my bed with. “And this” she continued “was his brother.” I read the notice with great
sadness. It was difficult for me to speak about those who were so brutally
murdered by our enemy. These men and women all desired to live so much, but
felt the responsibility to do something for others, and their country. When the
Germans caught them, their lives ended abruptly in violence.”
Two brave heroes of the Netherlands
slain in the Streets of Amsterdam by the NSB
Unlike
in the days of Pierre,
we are privileged to live in a time of relative freedom. As we read of the events
of those dreadful years, our hearts should be touched with tenderness and
sorrow. These brave individuals did something, even in the face of extreme
danger. Many died because of their faith in their Messiah, Jesus, who called
them (in the New Testament) to
withstand the evil persecution of his brethren, Israel.
“‘Assuredly,
I (Jesus) say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these (Israel) my brethren,
you did it to me. Then they also will answer him, saying, 'master, when did we
see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did
not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to
you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do
it to me.' And these will go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous
into eternal life.’” Matt 25:40 & 44-46 (NKJ).
These
faithful ones, hid them in their homes, and helped them to escape, even to Palestine. Volumes could
be written of great heroism, not only in the Netherlands,
but also, throughout Europe. Most of these
individuals were convicted of their duty, through their faith. These are the “Righteous (Tzedakah) believers in the
Messiah!”
“O
love the LORD, all you His
saints: for the LORD preserved the faithful, and plentifully rewards the proud
doer. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope
in the LORD” Psalm 31: 23 & 24.
The
next chapter contains the story of a dear lady who displayed the kind of
courage and audacity that is shared by all who fought so bravely for the right
to live in freedom, and practice their faith, be it Christians, or Jews. Her
story will have a profound impact on all that read it!
The
following is something this wonderful faithful woman held as her motto until
the very end!
“Love ye your
enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall
be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the
unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is
merciful” Luke 6: 35 - 36 (KJV).
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