Amsterdam’s mayor will deliver a historic apology this month for the Dutch capital’s role in the Holocaust, and the city’s failure to support Jewish survivors returning from Nazi death camps.
Femke Halsema is expected to address the city’s complicity during a Yom HaShoah commemoration on 24 April. It will mark the first time the municipality formally recognises both its active participation in the persecution of Jews during the Second World War and its treatment of those who came back after the war to find their homes gone and their communities devastated.
New research by the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, due to be released in May, is expected to confirm that local authorities in Amsterdam cooperated with the Nazi regime. This includes the use of the city’s population register to locate Jewish residents, the involvement of Dutch police in deportations, and profits made by the municipal transport operator for ferrying Nazi personnel to assembly points.
The National Holocaust Museum of the Netherlands in Amsterdam
Over 60,000 Jews were deported from Amsterdam and murdered. After the war, survivors often faced further hardship, including demands to pay back taxes for the years they had spent imprisoned in Nazi camps.
Ronny Naftaniel, a prominent figure in the Dutch Jewish community, welcomed the move. “Better late than never,” he told the Het Parool newspaper. “It would be good if the apology was not just about the war, but also the period immediately afterwards, given the cold reception that returned Jews received at the time.”
The mayor is also expected to announce a £21.4 million fund to promote Jewish life in the city, as antisemitism continues to rise. In November, Israeli football fans visiting Amsterdam were violently targeted by antisemitic rioters, one of the several incidents that have raised concerns within the community.
Israeli Maccabi fans in Amsterdam
Before the Holocaust, Amsterdam was affectionately known by many Jews as “mokum”, a Yiddish word meaning “safe haven”. The apology is expected to reflect on this legacy while confronting the city’s darker history and pledging support for its Jewish residents today.
