Demonstrations against anti-Jewish restrictions were recently organized by Dutch students in The Hague, Utrecht, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, it was reported here today.
At the same time, official Dutch sources reported that B.A. Kahn, former owner of the Hirsch Company, one of the largest department stores in Holland, and a Zionist leader, had died in the Buchenwald concentration camp on May 29. Fahn’s store was seized immediately after the Nazi occupation. He was 55 years old.
Serious clashes occurred in Utrecht between Gestapo agents and students who insisted on fraternizing with Jews in the streets. In Zandvoort, students paraded in the streets, wearing yellow armlets as a reply to the Dutch Nazis’ demand for introduction of armbands for Jews.
Quislingite mayors appointed by the Germans have been warned by anti-Nazi leaders not to sign anti-Jewish orders on penalty of public boycott. On the other hand, Catholic priests who have openly condemned the Nazi anti-Jewish policy have received anonymous letters from Nazis warning them to abandon their “pro-Jewish” attitude if they value their lives.
Jews are barred from Dutch labor camps, but it has been announced that special camps will be established for Jews, where they will be forced to do heavy work “unsuitable for ‘Aryan’ youth.”
Meanwhile, a labor camp for 600 Jews has already been established in Limburg, Belgium. The inmates are forced to toil ten hours daily in coal mines without pay, except for near-starvation allowances for their families. The food in the camps is meager and the mortality rate is high.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
