Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and her husband, Prince Claus, attended the 50th anniversary commemoration here of the “February strike,” a spontaneous protest by Amsterdam workers on Feb. 25-26, 1941, against the first deportations of Dutch Jews from Nazi-occupied Holland.
The annual ceremony Tuesday was the first since 1946 to be attended by members of the royal family. It was held in Jonas Daniel Meyer Square near the statue of the Stevedore, the dockworker who came to symbolize the strike.
The protest began at the initiative of the Communists after 425 young Amsterdam Jews, seized arbitrarily in reprisal for an attack on Dutch Nazis, were deported to concentration camps. All perished within months at Mauthausen.
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