Memorials to be placed at three Amsterdam tram stops to honor Jews deported during WWII

Memorials will be placed at three tram stops in Amsterdam with information about the process of deporting Jewish residents during World War II. The municipality is also providing 100,000 euros to the Jewish organization CJO as compensation for the money that city’s public transport company, GVB, earned from the tram rides used to transport Jews to train stations on their way out of the city.

The municipality of Amsterdam and the GVB made the announcement on Friday. These are the first results of a conversation between the municipality, the GVB and the CJO in response to the book and the documentary Verdwenen Stad, which showed that dozens of invoices were recently found in the archives of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

These were sent by the GVB to the Nazis to recover the costs for the heavily guarded transport of Jews to the Amsterdam Centraal and Amsterdam Muiderpoort train stations by tram. From there, they were transported to the German extermination camps. Most of the invoices were paid. The equivalent amount was valued at a minimum of 61,000 euros.

The memorials will be located at the Plantage Middenlaan, Beethovenstraat and Victorieplein stops. The municipality and the GVB also want to change the name of the Artis stop on Plantage Middenlaan to Artis/National Holocaust Museum. It is also being considered whether a memorial can be placed at the Muiderpoort train station.

The Amsterdam trams are part of an investigation into all municipal services that were involved in the exclusion and persecution of Jewish Amsterdam residents during World War II. “That does not alter the fact that the GVB now wants to express generous and sincere regret for the role that the Municipal Tram and the Municipal Transport Company have played,” the carrier said. The company called it “horrible and cruel” that it sent invoices regarding the deportation of Jewish Amsterdam residents during the war.

Mayor Femke Halsema told the CJO that the 100,000 euros from the municipality “is not meant as damage compensation but simply a return of the money the municipality should never have received. After the publication of the NIOD report, the council will consider the financial consequences of the findings,” the mayor added.

The CJO has said that they appreciate the money and will discuss with the municipality what it is best to spend it on. CJO chairman Chanan Hertzberger added that the CJO are pleased with how quickly the municipality of Amsterdam have dealt with the episode.