Inventory

The Jewish Council for Amsterdam: with his arms crossed sitting at the table is Asscher, on his left is Cohen.

Unrest in Amsterdam Cause for establishing the Jewish Council were continuous riots in Amsterdam, provoked and caused by WAs

Extensive overview of the increasing unrest in the capital described by Sijes, Februaristaking... p. 62-89. Also see Presser, Ondergang... deel I p. 78-81 & De Jong, Het Koninkrijk... deel 4 p. 876-881.

During a fight on Waterlooplein on Tuesday evening 11 February, WA-man Hendrik Koot was heavily wounded

Part of the statements have been published by www.dedokwerker.nl/hendrik_koot.html

Reaction of the occupier The German reaction came fast: the next morning at six o'clock Böhmcker sealed the Jewish neighbourhood. Bridges were raised and streets barricaded with barbed wire. That same Wednesday, at four thirty in the afternoon, he summoned three prominent people from the Jewish community to his office: Chief Rabbi D. Francès of the Portuguese Israeli municipality, Chief Rabbi L.H. Sarlouis of the Dutch Israeli Church Association and the chairman of that church association, Abraham Asscher. That latter was a diamond industrialist and member of States-Provincial of Noord-Holland for the Liberal State Party since 1917. Political cloud for these measures came from Fritz Schmidt, in occupied the Netherlands the representative of the National Socialist Workers Party, who got permission from Seyss-Inquart

De Jong, Het koninkrijk… deel 4 p. 882.

Böhmcker ordered the establishment of a "Judenrat", who would be responsible for the peace and order in the Jewish neighbourhood. He immediately gave his first decree: Jews had to be summoned to hand their weapons over to the police. Both Rabbis withdrew but Asscher was prepared to act as chairman, and requested professor in ancient history David Cohen to be appointed as co-chairman. They knew each other from their years in boards of directors and committees and were "always at the front of all relief efforts". Because of this role both Asscher and Cohen saw themselves as "leaders of the Jewish municipality"

De Jong, Het koninkrijk… deel 4 p. 885.

Establishment of the Jewish Council At a meeting Böhmcker stated that the "Judenrat" was allowed to consist of twenty members. Asscher and Cohen approached people they knew from their previous positions by telephone. Seeing as these contacts were mainly rooted in the upper middle class, most of the possible members consisted of Jewish notables. The only two representatives from the working class were only on the council for a few months: chairman I. Voet of the General Dutch Diamond Cutters Association stepped down for health reasons and butcher A. Quiros from the Jodenbreestraat soon stepped down as well.

Thursday morning 13 February 1941 at eleven o'clock twenty men assembled in Asscher's factory. Besides chairmen Asscher and Cohen the following people came to the building on Tolhuisstraat 127-129

Lindwer, Het fatale dilemma... p. 229 & De Jong, Het koninkrijk... deel 5 p. 519 noot 2. Of the people present only professor Frijda refused on principle to take part in the Jewish Council. Besides butcher Quiros and union leader Voet, Mr. I Kisch also left the Jewish Council in 1941. A year later doctor dr. I.H.J. Vos and attorney A. van den Bergh had joined the Council. After July 1942 some members disappeared from the Council due to deportations. In February 1942 Mr. L.N. Kan quit, in the summer of 1943 Krouwer and Van Lier left the Council because they were not fully Jewish according to the Germans. In spring 1943 chief Rabbi Dasberg from Groningen joined the Council. In summer 1943 the Jewish Council only had eleven members besides Asscher and Cohen.

Initially the company thought to name it the Committee for the representations of the Amsterdam Jews. The focal point of the committee would be "that it mainly would have an executive and communicational task, but not be responsible for the orders they have to communicate, and not go as far as accepting tasks that are dishonourable for Jews"

Notes Jewish Council 13 February 1941; archief 182 Joodse Raad inventarisnummer 3.

Expansion of the Jewish Council By that time the power and influence of the Jewish Council had grown significantly, not least of all through German measures. The ban on other Jewish organisations in the autumn of 1941 was one of the causes for the strengthened position

Due to this the Jewish Coordination Committee was banned. The Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung solidified the position of the Jewish Council by consciously handing over authority to the council; Michman, "De oprichting van de Joodse Raad voor Amsterdam…" p. 90.

The Jewish Council also got more involved with the preparation and execution of anti-Jewish measures and had to let go of the intention to not accept dishonourable tasks. The council was controlled by the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung led by Willy Lages and Ferdinand aus der Fünten. The Zentralstelle forced the Jewish Council to compile lists of non-Dutch Jews and later also of unemployed Dutch Jews. The distribution of the yellow badges also went through the council

It was so quickly and efficiently executed that it garnered German admiration; Michman, "Controversy surrounding the Jewish Council…" p. 254.

From the on 13 February 1941 hastily assembled committee of twenty men, the Jewish Council grew to an organisation with dozens of departments and local and regional representatives all over the country. Chronicler of the persecution of Jews in the Netherlands, Jacques Presser, likened the Jewish Council to a ministry size wise, and called it "a swarming mess of people, functions, bureaus with matching paperwork". He spoke of a "rampant growth": early April 1943 the Jewish Council had eight thousand employees just for Amsterdam. Another 560 people were employed in the provinces Noord- and Zuid-Holland and Utrecht and big cities The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht. The big raids of May and June 1943 had an "altered bureau list" as a consequence. Mid July there were less than 1.100 employees and late August the Jewish Council only had 92 left

Presser, “Ondergang…” p. 453-455.

Dissolution of the Jewish Council Unwanted and unknowingly the Jewish Weekly announced the end of the Jewish Council with the announcement that the bureaus would be closed on 30 September and 1 October because of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah

Joodsche Weekblad 3e jaargang no. 25 van 24 september 1943; http://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/view?query=joodsche+weekblad&page=1&coll=ddd&facets%5Bperiode%5D%5B%5D=2%7C20e_eeuw%7C1940-1949%7C1943%7C&identifier=ddd%3A010318389%3Ampeg21%3Ap001&resultsidentifier=ddd%3A010318389%3Ampeg21%3Aa0018

Vienna and Prague The first concepts for a representative institution for the Jewish community were already on the desks of German authorities in April 1933. A draft design for the "Stellung der Juden" contained a mandatory membership of a "Verband der Juden" and an election of a "Judenrat" of 25 people

Michman, "“De oprichting van de Joodse Raad voor Amsterdam…" p. 77.

Berlin The situation in the German Reich was different than in Czechoslovakia and Austria. In the Altreich the Jewish population was not mainly centred in the capital but had spread across the country. Since 1933 there was a national organisation which Jews could join on a voluntary basis. This Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden was established without pressure from the national-socialist government but came from the Jewish community

Esh, “Reichsvereinigung der Juden…” p. 20.

The Gestapo, which was charged with settling Jewish affairs, dissolved the Reichsvereinigung on 10 June 1943. At that time there were less than ten thousand Jews left of the three hundred thousand that were living in Germany in 1939

Esh, “Reichsvereinigung der Juden…” p. 32, 34, 37-38. Only a Restvereinigung der jüdischen Mischehepartner continued to exist to hand over property of old organisations to the state.

Poland In Poland, the first country conquered by force, the Germans established Jüdische Ältestenrat in almost every Jewish community, consisting of Rabbis and other notables. The intention behind this was recorded by chief of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt Reinhardt Heydrich in an order to the commanders of the Einsatzgruppe

Schnellbrief from 21 September 1939 from Heydrich to the commanders of the Einsatzgruppen; cited in Berenstein, Faschismus, Getto, Massenmord… p. 37-41.

The established Jewish council were generally a continuation of the traditional Jewish organisations that already existed before the war, or originated from civil committees during the battles of September 1939

Trunk, Judenrat… p. 14-16. Part of the Judenrat for Lublin consisted of members from a pre-war Jewish city council. Most members of the Jewish Citizen Committee, that was established during the siege of Warschau, later took part in the Judenrat of the city.

The size of Jewish councils could vary. A large city like Lwow with 150.000 inhabitants had a Jewish council of initially eight and later twelve members. A provincial town with seven thousand inhabitants on the other hand had twenty four members in the Jewish council

Trunk, Judenrat… p. 29. In the town of Wadowice there were two thousand Jews that were represented by a Jewish council of four members. In the nearby village of Andrychów there was a Jewish council of six members for a Jewish population of five hundred.

France and Belgium The Jewish councils in France and Belgium were established nine months after the Jewish Council in Amsterdam and was given a legal base. On 21 November 1941 the Union Générale des Israélites de France (UGIF) was established. Existing Jewish organisations were dismantled or were absorbed into the UGIF. It was recorded by law that the work area of UGIF would cover both the German occupied part of France as well as the French Vichy controlled part. Chairman Albert Lévy was responsible for the Vichy-area, vice-chairman André Baur resided in occupied Paris. This managerial divide lasted until mid February 1943, three months after the Germans occupied the Vichy-area. Besides the social, financial and medical support, the UGIF also arrange education within the Jewish community. From early June 1943 the UGIF was also charged with collecting special taxes from Jews

Szajkowski, "Glimpses on the History of Jews…" p. 134, 136, 145. Before the war, Chairman Albert Lévy was involved with helping Jewish refugees as chairman of the Comité d' Assistance aux Refugiés.

Similarly, late November 1941 the military commander in Belgium ordered the establishment of the Vereinigung der Juden in Belgien (VJB), The establishment decree established that the "Jewish Association" was given statutes and was supervised by the Ministry of the Interior and Health. The goal was firmly recorded as "stimulating the emigration of Jews"

Michman, "De oprichting van de VJB…" p. 41-42.

Judenrat and Judenverein In the countries surrounding the Netherlands there were roughly two models for Jewish councils. In Vienna, Prague and Poland there were locally oriented Judenräte established without a legal base. This model was mainly found in areas where the SS-organisations were strong

Michman, "Judenräte…" p. 300; Also the Soviet Union, Hungary, the Greek Salonica, and to a certain extend Tunesia were exposed to this model.

The Netherlands The Netherlands was given a civil occupation authority run by Reichscommissar Arthur Seyss-Inquart, where the SS could exert more power than in France or Belgium. The strong position of Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer Hanns Albin Rauter reflects this. Furthermore, he was from Austria, just like Seyss-Inquart and the Generalkommissare Hans Fischböck and Friedrich Wimmer

Blom, "The persecution of the Jews…" p. 338

The Jewish Council that saw the light in the Netherlands shows some similarities to the Polish model, like the absence of a legal base, the initial task to maintain peace and order and at the beginning local authority

Other corresponding elements could be the name Judenrat (contrary to Judenvereinigung), the personal order of the German authorities to Rabbis and notables, the number of members and authority of a central council over regional councils; Michman, "De oprichting van de Joodse Raad voor Amsterdam…" p. 88, 91 and 93.

It is remarkable that in this case Seyss-Inquart attempted to establish a representative Jewish organisation that was like the Reichs-Vereinigung in Germany itself. By doing so, he went directly against the hard line Rauter and Harster supported. Seyss-Inquart had plans developed for a "jüdische Zwangsorganisation" that would regulate and control the social and cultural life of Jews. Besides the "Reinigung des Kultur- und Vereinswesens von artfremden Einflussen", "Förderung ihrer Auswanderung" was also in his plan. This plan, that mainly was a move in the chess game for power, never outgrew its concept status

Michman, "Planning for the final solution…" p. 149 noot 8. & Michman, "Jüdenräte…" p. 302.

Within the unrest of the power struggle within the Reichskommissariat, chairmen Asscher and Cohen were looking for leeway. With the terrible image of young Jewish men who were arrested in February 1941 and some months later deported to Mauthausen, they chose to cooperate with Böhmcker over the strict regime of the SS and Sicherheitsdienst

Houwink ten Cate, "The security police..." p. 389-390.

The cooperative attitude of the Jewish Council corresponds with the cooperative attitude of the Jewish community in general. Because of their long tradition of integration and assimilation in the Dutch society, the Jews responded similarly to the German occupation as most of the Dutch citizens: with acceptance and cooperation

Blom, "The persecution of the Jews…" p. 348-349 states that a well organised Jewish Council would seamlessly fit with the more or less cooperative and docile attitude of the Jewish community in the Netherlands.