Arrest

The ‘Central Office for Jewish Emigration’ was an institution set up by the German occupiers. It directed the Jewish Council to distribute the labour summonses. 

The first summonses were delivered on 5 July 1942 and sent primarily to German and other non-Dutch Jews. Contrary to the claims of the German occupiers, the transports in the summer of 1942 did not go to labour camps in Germany; they went to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. 

Many Jews were suspicious of the summonses and only a few showed up at the assembly points. The German occupiers increased the pressure on the Jewish Council, but also resorted to other means: They carried out raids or arrested Jews in their homes in the evenings. 

Ida Estella Mathilda van Raalte-Simons, born in The Hague in 1895, survived the Holocaust. She passed away in The Hague in 1987 at the age of 92. 

The Hollandsche Schouwburg was a theatre building in Amsterdam that the Nazis began using as a collection point on 20 July 1942. This is where they held Jewish men, women and children who had complied with the summons for transport to Westerbork or Vught. The detainees were joined by other Jews who had been arrested in the city. The theatre building was often overcrowded. Some people had to endure many days there. An estimated 46,000 Jews passed through this detention centre. 

The German occupiers made this identity card compulsory in the Netherlands. The new identity cards, issued in spring 1942, were more difficult to forge than previous ones. 

Later, the identity cards of Jews were stamped on both sides with a large ‘J’. This made it possible for the German occupiers and Dutch police to easily identify Jewish people during a document check on the street. 

The rectangular stamp in the middle of this card contains an exemption: Adolf Levenbach was not required to perform labour, which temporarily protected him from arrest and deportation. The number on the exemption was used to verify the authenticity and validity of the entry in the register of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration. 

After arriving at the Hollandsche Schouwburg collection point, the detainees were registered by employees of the Jewish Council. Both the cloakroom and the stage in the large hall of the former theatre building were used for this purpose. 

After registration, the Jews had to hand over the keys to their flat. The German occupiers ordered their flats to be sealed and later cleared out.

Aunt Eva’s arrest increased the likelihood that Ab Reiner’s cousin Sol would also be detained. A neighbour alerted the family to this. Sol had to go into hiding and later went underground.

Employees of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Amsterdam had planned the raid and observed its progress on 20 June 1943. They sat in a car parked at the edge of the Daniël Willinkplein. Dr Werner Schröder, representative of the Central Office for Amsterdam, sat in the passenger seat. Alois Gombault, Schröder’s assistant, sat in the middle in back. 

This photo was taken by Dutch photographer Lambertus Jasper de Kok. He had joined the NSB in 1940 and began taking photographs for the German occupying forces in 1941. His pictures show the perspective of a propaganda photographer and captured events that other photographers had no access to. 

In Amsterdam, Dutch entrepreneur Abraham Puls was instructed to collect the belongings of deported or missing Jews. This gave rise to the colloquial expression “Pulsen”, which referred to clearing out flats and stealing property. 

Because the household goods and furniture had to be sent to Germany, everything was carefully recorded. However, neighbours and employees of the Puls company helped themselves to certain items. Many objects were stolen or embezzled and bought by Dutch dealers on the black market.

There are no photographs of the final raid, during which the Tal family was arrested along with other members of the Jewish Council. Chanan chose this photograph to show how the arrest was carried out. 

A Dutch photographer took this photograph for the German occupiers. It was taken near the sports complex at Olympiaplein in Amsterdam. Jews from the surrounding area had to gather there on 20 June 1943.