Amsterdam tram firm paid equivalent of €61,000 for helping deport Jews in WWII

Amsterdam trams were used to corral some 48,000 Jews who were then deported from the Netherlands during World War II. A total of about 900 tram rides from the city's public transport firm, GVB, were used for this purpose. The company invoiced the German occupying forces for payment for the trips. The CJO, a coalition of organizations representing the Dutch Jewish community, wants the GVB to hand over the money so it can be put to good use, the organization said on Tuesday after initial reporting by Parool.

Dozens of invoices that the transport company sent to the Nazis were recently found in the archives of the NIOD, the Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Most of these invoices were paid in full. When adjusted for inflation, the total would be valued at a minimum of 61,000 euros. Amsterdam Jews were transferred by heavily guarded trams to train stations from where they were then transported to German extermination camps.

The CJO would like the money to be made available to a charity to be determined at a later time. "We will soon meet with the GVB and the municipality of Amsterdam to see how to do this," said a spokesperson for the CJO.

The discovery of the invoices in the archive is central to a book and a documentary entitled Verdwenen Stad by filmmaker Willy Lindwer and author Guus Luijters. The duo discovered during their reconstruction that Anne Frank and her family were transported by a GVB tram. It was one of the last trips the transportation company made for this purpose. The bill was never paid for this trip.

"GVB never acknowledged their mistake or showed remorse or offered financial compensation to the deported Jews and their relatives," Lindwer and Luijters told the newspaper.

"The insinuating book Verdwenen Stad about how the Jewish population was taken from Amsterdam by tram, in which the authors and producers indicate what role the Gemeentetram Amsterdam played in the Second World War, including issuing invoices, horrifies us," says the GVB.

"The role of the municipality transport company as part of the city of Amsterdam needs to be researched studiously," the GVB added. "We realize that the past of public transport in Amsterdam is incomplete as long as all facts and circumstances have not been investigated and established coherently. The NIOD investigation must now be completed quickly but carefully. We welcome all facts brought to the table."