Amsterdam Mayor Halsema apologizes for city's role in persecution of Jews during WWII
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema issued an apology on Thursday evening for the city's role in the persecution of Jewish people during World War II. She delivered the apology at the Hollandsche Schouwburg in the capital's Jewish Cultural Quarter during the the commemoration on Yom HaShoah, the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"When push came to shove, the Amsterdam government was not heroic, not determined and not merciful. And it horribly let down its Jewish residents. On behalf of the city government, I offer my apologies for this," Halsema said.
"History cannot be undone. It is our duty to keep the memory of all victims of the Shoah alive."
During the war, the municipality actively cooperated with the occupying force, Halsema said in her speech. Municipal officials mapped out where Jewish Amsterdammers resided, the Amsterdam city police cooperated in the deportations of tens of thousands of Jews, and the municipality made trams from city public transport operator GVB available to help transport those being deported.
The mayor called the implementation of a registration requirement for Jewish Amsterdammers an "indispensable step in isolating, humiliating, deporting, dehumanizing and murdering 60,000 Amsterdam Jews." The inescapable conclusion is also that the municipality morally failed, she said.
"Never was a clear 'No!' said from City Hall to the occupier. Services were willing to help implement one anti-Jewish measure after another," she continued.
"Step by step, the municipal apparatus became part of the machinery of evil. Amsterdam Jews who had narrowly escaped that evil were not cherished by their city government, but were given a kick in the ass."
Two weeks ago, Parool already revealed that Halsema planned to present a formal apology. The NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies will soon complete an investigation into the role of all municipal services that were involved in the exclusion and persecution of Jewish Amsterdammers during World War II. Last year, a report was already published about the role of the GVB in the war.
