The return of the Jews from the concentration camps after the end of World War II
The Jewish people
Jewish history has been going back in time for more than 3000 years and the Jews have experienced and survived a lot over the centuries. The Jews were often the victims. Why were the Jews often the victim?
The Jews had their own religion and that made them different
The Jews are the murderers of God, an accusation that was made even after World War II by Roman Catholic clerics, only toned down after the Second Vatican Council
The Jews have always been a very solid and tight community and that was sometimes seen as a lack of loyalty to the dissenters
Because they were often limited in the exercise of a profession, they ended up in certain niches such as trade and banking by their own initiative. They could not do otherwise and usually turned out to be very good at their profession. The success caused a lot of jealousy.
Minorities in general were, in times of adversity, quickly blamed the situation, so certainly the Jews
In the 19th and 20th centuries, antipathy against the Jewish people became part of racist ideologies and we now speak of anti-Semitism that plays a role everywhere even in the present time
The Nazis and the Jews in the Netherlands
Before the start of the Second World War, there were about 140,000 Jews living in the Netherlands. Under Hitler’s regime, more and more anti-Jewish measures were gradually introduced. From 1942, more than 100,000 Jews were transported via Westerbork to the death camps (see the story about Westerbork in the Murder factories)
About 102,000 Dutch Jews were murdered, relatively speaking a lot, with regard to countries such as Belgium and France
The Return to the Netherlands
What has happened in the concentration camps is unimaginable (see the story about the Murder Factories). The Jews were taken out of their house by raids, all possessions had to be left behind. Only a small suitcase with some clothes and things you need daily could be taken. Then the transport to a camp such as Westerbork where one could wait crammed together the time to travel to the “promised country”, where the motto “Arbeit macht frei” prevails. In cattle trucks, after a terrible and humiliating journey, te “promised land” is reached, which turns out to be a labor camp. After arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau or Sobibor, the truth becomes clear very quickly. If you are lucky you can live for a while, but the majority of the Jews will be killed immediately. The meager possessions will then still be confiscated.
For those who were allowed to live, a hellish time is now coming. Insufficient food, too little clothing to keep you warm, diseases and humiliating treatments by the Nazi executioners who take pleasure in it to completely humiliate the victims. Thousands of camp residents do not survive this treatment. Then there is hope. The Allies are advancing and the liberation is near. At least that’s what’s thought. But the Nazis have come up with something else, the Death Marches. Most of the camp residents have to be moved to camps within Germany and that is done through the Death Marches. Camp residents who have survived the camps and are in a miserable state are forced to travel hundreds of kilometres on foot. Thousands die on the way through exhaustion or execution. Eventually, the survivors arrive in yet another camp where conditions are even worse. Again thousands of camp residents die. You have also survived this as another miracle. The Allies reach the camp and the victims are freed. Not immediately, but after one has come to strength and recover from all kinds of ailments, the victims are allowed to go home. After all kinds of detours, one arrives at the former hometown with the idea that you as a victim will be received with some empathy and helpfulness.
Abel Herzberg:
“Human cruelty is beyond human imagination. You don’t come up with it, no one thinks this.”
Documentary “The Ordinary Men”:
“Can ordinary normal people turn into monsters?
We all have the potential to become a monster
All people are able to do things
Which they cannot imagine themselves “
The reception in the home land
Nothing could be further from the truth. The reception in the Netherlands was cold and bureaucratic for many Jews. Unlike political prisoners or resistance people, the Jews were often not given special recognition or priority. Old neighbors or acquaintances showed no joy, kept distance or started over financial matters.
Homes were often seized and were now inhabited by others. Assets had been looted, confiscated or sold through the Nazis’ robbery bank (Liro bank).
Many Jews had to buy back their own belongings from the new inhabitants. Mortgages, tax debts and overdue premiums were claimed by overzealous cold officials as if there had been no war.
Families had been largely murdered, a social network was no longer there. Many Dutch people were concerned with themselves and the reconstruction and did not pay attention to the situation and the tragedy of the returned Jews. The story of the Jews and their suffering even generated a certain irritation.
The government also did not have a special policy for the Jewish survivors. Overdue tax on the war years in which people were in the camps had to be paid.
In other words: After the survival of the camps, many Jews realized that there was little empathy in the Netherlands and that their old life had been irreparably destroyed.
Below are some quotes from the book “You are not expected by anyone” by Michal Citroen:
“A Jewish woman got off the train in Amsterdam and reported to an official behind a table in the hall of the station. The man looked in his papers and said, ‘You are not expected by anyone”
“A Polish Jew had been home for a while to hear that he was unwanted. When he said that the house and all the stuff that was in it were his, he was told that the past is not the present. That he was lucky to be alive, because that stupid Hitler had not even killed all the Jews. If he didn’t leave quickly, they would finish Hitler’s work.”
“Some American soldiers even expressed their inability to accept reality by saying that the Germans might have been right with their distinction of a lesser kind of people”
“Almost all people who have been repatriated through Belgium speak full of praise and even with emotion about the Belgian authorities. Time played an important role in this. Belgium had been freed before the flow of returnees started. The people and the authorities had ample opportunity to lick their wounds and prepare for the return of compatriots”
“When I arrived at the Central Station in the evening in the dark and reported me, I heard people say that we should be happy that we had not been here. They said they were so hungry. Like I was from Sankt Moritz. At the station I had to go through the mangle, because I could have been a NSB member. The fact that I showed my number didn’t matter, because everyone could have had it tattooed. But you didn’t get any proof that you had been in Auschwitz, not a group photo as a souvenir”
“In search of the remains of a destroyed existence, they went to experience that no one had actually expected them anymore. Or worse, that people did not always like that they had come back ”
“The reality was that the Jews felt a solidarity with the people who came back. A Jewish solidarity that far exceeded the solidarity of the Dutch with this group ”
“Joseph Weiss, who after a stay in Bergen-Belsen, was treated shamefully in the Netherlands in Felt, among others by the commander of the camp, who welcomed him on arrival with the announcement that he was not a friend from the Jews and that he would notice that pretty soon ”
“Moreover, people generally had no idea of the conditions in the camps where the Jews came from. Most people didn’t care about that either. They had complaints about their own worries. ‘At least you had food and a house’, it was said ”
“At least you haven’t experienced the hunger winter,” is a pretty self-centered comment and certainly not cordial. But the remark made several times ‘they have certainly forgotten to gas you’, can in no way be accepted”
“Jo van Dam was in the resistance during the war. After 1945, like many fellow companions, he had problems to restart his life. He felt like a stranger in a society that was detorated from Jews. Walking through Amsterdam he heard saying: ‘The good Jews are gassed, the bad ones have arrived back here’”
“Everything concerning your furniture, you had to be able to prove with purchase forms. The Germans certainly gave that, receipts! That was a joke, of course. Everywhere you were treated with the attitude: God he becomes troublesome, such a retrograded man. Jews had no right to come back, so was the state of mind in the Netherlands ”
“The memories of those who had not returned, the memories of their home that had been destroyed, they were so traumatizing that it was impossible for them to stay. Part of it has said openly: ‘How the Netherlands has received me and the treatment that I am experiencing now, I cannot bear that and therefore I must leave’ ”
Finally, a conclusion from 1977 that basically includes everything:
NRC newspaper, June 1977, Emmy van Overeem:
“The help came far too late. They can only try to repair the mistakes. It is a scandal that all the authorities, including to which we belong and the government, have never tried to help us. If only we had had some more expert listeners after 1945, the suffering of the concentration camps might not have been so deeply anchored in those thousands who came back”
Comparison of the return of the Jews in the Netherlands, Belgium and France
Netherlands
Returning Jews had to report directly to the municipal authorities, via police or population register. We looked at “status” and property questions before the humanitarian shelter started. Formally, the government’s view was that claiming Jewish property had been legally valid during the war. Recovery became slow and painful. The returnees ran into coldness and hostility. Neighbors had taken over homes and there was often no voluntary restitution. Westerbork acted as a temporary shelter, but was led by officials with an administrative and cold approach.
Belgium
In Belgium there was also an administration obligation, but there was direct help from various organizations (CAIVG), partly private but also supported by the government. Recovery of property was also difficult, but the authorities more quickly acknowledged the unlawfulness of Jewish expropriation. Commissions were set up for reparations. The social environment was also limited, but in the large cities with a Jewish community there was often direct shelter by the Jewish community. There was international assistance. American and British Jewish institutions sent food parcels, clothing and money very fast.
France
Officially, it was stated from 1944 that expropriations of Jewish possessions were invalid. Return of Jewish property was legally supported, but the practical implementation was slow due to bureaucracy and housing shortage. Social reception differed greatly by region. In the big cities with a large Jewish pre-war community, the shelter quickly started (OSE). In the countryside, the attitude was indifferent or even hostile. There was more public recognition in France, but that did not always mean more warmth on an individual level.
Overview in numbers:
Netherlands: Jewish population for 1940: +/- 140,000, deported: +/- 107,000, survivors of deportation: between 5,000 and 6,000
Belgium: Jewish population before 1940: between 66,000 and 70,000, deported: +/- 25,500, survivors of deportation: +/- 1,200
France: Jewish population before 1940: +/- 300,000, deported +/- 76,000, survivors of deportation: between 2,500 and 3,000
The reason why relatively few French Jews were arrested and deported in relation to the Netherlands and Belgium is that the Vichy regime often refused to extradite French nationals.
Source:
You are not expected by anyone – Michal Citroen
History.net