Amsterdam re-examining official alleged to have deported Jews in WWII

The Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI) is demanding that Amsterdam finds another name for the Mijksenaarzaal in the city hall, the Stopera. This follows a report in Het Parool that former Amsterdam official Pieter Jan Mijksenaar actively cooperated in the deportation of Jews during World War II. The Amsterdam city council is demanding further research into the matter and will then see what can be done. Het Parool partly based its report on a newly published thesis by political scientist Stephan Steinmetz. According to the newspaper, Mijksenaar had two faces. On the one hand he saved two Jews, which he was later honored for, and on the other he worked on plans to hasten the forced move of Jews to the ghettos. "Now that we know this, his name should no longer be immortalized and honored with a room in the city hall", CIDI said to news wire ANP. "It now appears that Mijksenaar enthusiastically helped the occupiers in the years 1942 - 1943 with the deportation of Jews and that he strove to make this process run smoothly and efficiently." A spokesperson for the Amsterdam city council said that they are investigating the findings in the thesis. All coalition partners and big opposition parties in the council are also insisting on further investigation."We will see after the investigation what we need to do with the naming of the hall", PvdA spokesperson Marjolein Moorman said to Het Parool.