History of the Jews in the Netherlands

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The history of the Jews in the Netherlands largely dates to the late 16th century and 17th century, when Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain began to settle in Amsterdam and a few other Dutch citie

Interior of the Portuguese Synagogue, Amsterdam in 1695 by Romeyn de Hooghe

Bima in the Amsterdam Esnoga 1695 by Romeyn de Hooghe

Interior of the Amsterdam Esnoga, the synagogue for the Portuguese-Israelite (Sephardic) community. It was inaugurated 2 August 1675 and is still in use by the Jewish community.

Exterior of the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam, c. 1695, showing the social context of the wealthy community. by Romeyn de Hooghe

The Holocaust in the Netherlands

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The Holocaust saw the mass murder of Dutch Jews by Nazi Germany in occupied Netherlands during the Second World War. The Nazi occupation in 1940 immediately began disrupting the norms of Dutch society

History of the Jews in the Netherlands

…communities, making them functionaries of the state. By 1940, there were around 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands. During Nazi occupation in World War II, the Holocaust in the Netherlands was particularly brutal, with approximately 75 percent of the Jewish population deported to concentration and extermination camps, most famously Anne…

Monument at Westerbork: Each stone represents one person who was detained at Westerbork prior to being murdered in a Nazi camp, A Star of David for the Jewish victims, 245 stones have a flame, representing the Romani victims. A couple of stones have no symbol, marking a Resistance victim. All 10200 stones together form the shape of the Netherlands.

Yellow Star of David that Dutch Jews were forced to wear

Jewish woman wearing a yellow Star of David during the razzia of 20 June 1943 [nl]

Germans arrest Jews in the Jonas Daniel Meijerplein in Amsterdam, February 1941