The more than 100,000 Jews from The
Netherlands murdered by the Germans in World War II represented a higher
percentage of Jews killed - 75% - than in any other Western European
country. Dutch Nazi collaborators outnumbered those active in the
Resistance. The common international image of help given by the Dutch to
the Jews during the war concerns a very small part of the population: most
Dutch accommodated themselves.
Preparing for the extermination of the
Jews living in The Netherlands, the Germans could count on the assistance
of most of the Dutch administrative infrastructure. With respect to Dutch
collaboration, Eichmann said: “the transports run so smoothly that it is a
pleasure to see.” Systematic looting of Jewish property began before the
deportations to the east. The government in exile in London did not even
do the little it could for the Jews. The queen devoted five sentences in
five years in her radio speeches to the fate of Dutch Jews under
occupation.
The first post-war Dutch governments made
no particular effort to help the Jews, even though their plight was much
worse than that of the average Dutchman. Denigrating remarks about
restitution to the Jews were made in private by the first post-war Dutch
prime minister, Schermerhorn.
In 1999 values, the possessions stolen
from the Jews during the war and not returned are worth many billions of
dollars. Even in the most optimistic assumption, the present public
investigations will lead to the return of only a minor part of this. The
commissions of inquiry will not address key issues such as the moral and
legal responsibility of post-war Dutch governments for the fate of the
Jews they could not protect during the war, and the moral dimension of the
post-war restitution laws. The danger that history could be distorted in
exchange for money must be prevented.
