History of Religion in The Netherlands - The Second World War

The Second World War

In 1940 the Netherlands became occupied by Nazi Germany. Most of the Dutch Jewish community was exterminated by the Nazis during this occupation.

In February 1941, there was a general strike in Amsterdam and the surrounding areas against the first razzia. This was the largest act of resistance against the persecution of Jews during the Second World War in the Netherlands. The main resistance groups were composed from conservative Calvinists, Communists and Catholics, while liberals and others were underrepresented. An important action of the resistance movement was hiding Jews from Nazis. There were 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands in 1940. 20,000 of them were free from persecution, because they were married to Aryan non-Jews, or because some of their parents and grandparents were non-Jews. Another 20,000 Jews hid from the Germans. From the 101,000 Jews that were deported, only 1,000 returned after the war (estimation). The percentage of Dutch Jews that were exterminated was much higher than in other countries, including Germany.