The Jews' Star

At the end of April 1942 the Nazi occupiers forced upon the Jewish community in the Netherlands to wear a yellow star of David on all of their clothing, visible for everybody, with the word JOOD (JEW), at the center of it. Cohen and Asscher, the chairmen of the Jewish Council, were informed of the regulation on Wednesday the 29^th of April 1942, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, at the offices of the Zentralstelle für Jüdische Auswanderung in Amsterdam. The order was given to them by SS-officers Lages and Aus der Fünten. Willy Lages was in charge of the Zentralstelle and in fact in charge of the deportation of the Jewish population to the camps in Poland. They had received their orders from the ReichsSicherheitsHauptAmt (RSHA), section IV-B-4, at The Hague. They received their orders from the headquarters of the RSHA in Berlin which was led by Reinhard Heydrich. Adolf Eichmann was in charge of Section IV-B-4 in Berlin.

The Jews' stars as they came from the factory.

At the offices of the Zentralstelle in Amsterdam the registration-files of the whole Dutch Jewish population were stored. These files were based on the main population-registers which were kept in The Hague. The Jewish Council got orders from the Germans to copy the information from the central population-registers to cards for each person, of all persons which registered as full-, half- or quarter Jews according to earlier issued regulations. These cards were kept at the Zentralstelle and from these cards lists were drawn up in case of a transport to Westerbork or Vught.

Dutch Jewish children with the star on their clothes

The stars themselves were collected the next day, by members of the Jewish Council. A total of 569355 stars were distributed in the coming 3 days, 4 stars per person, at Fl. 0,04 (4 cents) a piece and 1 textilecoupon. Every Jew from age 6 had to wear the star on his/her clothes when going outside, visible for everybody. It was long believed that the stars were produced in a ghetto in Poland but after research done in 1994 by the JHM and Niod it was found that these were in fact produced by a Dutch factory, NV Stoomweverij De Nijverheid at Enschede in the east of the Netherlands. This factory used to be in the hands of a Jewish family but after all the Nazi regulations came into German control.

Weaving mill De Nijverheid at Enschede

After the introduction of the yellow star there were some protests but the repression and persecution by the Nazi's, both German and Dutch, was so fierce that these protests soon were silenced. In the east of the Netherlands some non-Jewish students started to wear self-made stars and were arrested and send to Camp Amersfoort for a couple of weeks. Some Jews refused to wear the star and were send to Mauthausen, a certain death.

Published advice from the Jewish Council, where to buy the stars, how to wear them.

On May 1 1942 from the roof of the department store De Bijenkorf, in the centre of Amsterdam, near the Royal Palace and the Kalverstraat, pamflets were thrown by members of the revolutionary-socialist movement De Vonk with the text, “Jew and non-Jew, united in battle”. As a protest against the introduction of the yellow star and other anti-Jewish regulations. Most members of the resistance-movement De Vonk died during the war.

Sources;

• Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de tweede wereldoorlog (The kingdom of the Netherlands during WWII); Dr. L. De Jong; band 5, part 2
• Ondergang; J. Presser, 1965
• Verzetsmuseum (Resistance museum) Amsterdam; www.verzetsmuseum.org
• De Joodsche Raad in Enschede (The Jewish Council in Enschede); www.joodscheraadenschede.nl
• BeeldbankWO2 (Image bank WWII); www.beeldbankwo2.nl.