The failure of both the Dutch government-in-exile and the Dutch Red Cross to offer any support or succor to the more than 100,000 Dutch Jews deported by the Nazis during the German occupation of Holland in World War II, was documented in the ninth volume of a 12-volume history of the war years by Prof. Louis de Jong, former director of The Netherlands State Institute for World War II Documentation.
Volume Nine, just published here, devotes most of its nearly 1600 pages to the activities of The Netherlands Government-in-Exile in London and the Dutch Red Cross and its activities in unoccupied parts of Europe and other free countries. About 100 pages are concerned with the Jews in occupied Holland and those who managed to escape. According to de Jong, the Dutch authorities in London seemed hardly aware of the mass deportation of Jews and did virtually nothing in its broadcasts from London to urge the non-Jewish population to help them.
The Netherlands Red Cross, in contrast to the Red Cross societies of other occupied countries, provided very little assistance to Jews. Dutch representatives in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal were likewise unhelpful, de Jong stated.
De Jong, who retired upon reaching the age of 65 last May, is of Jewish origin. His report of the indifference of Dutch authorities to the suffering of Jews in Holland during the war differs sharply with the widespread belief to the contrary held in many countries, especially the United States.
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