The Persecution of the Jews in Photographs The Netherlands 1940-1945
The Persecution of the Jews in Photographs. The Netherlands 1940-1945 is the first book of photographs on the persecution and deportation of the Jews in the Netherlands. A remarkable number of photographs has been preserved of the process from isolation to destruction. Professional photographers in the service of the Nazis and amateurs alike took harrowing pictures.
Ordinary Dutch people recorded the raids, sometimes in secret. They also captured the introduction of the Star of David, life in hiding, as well as the perpetrators and bystanders.
On 10 May 1940, the day of the German invasion, the Netherlands counted 140,000 Jewish inhabitants. In addition, there were over 20,000 German-Jewish refugees in the country. Before long, the Nazis starting introducing anti-Jewish measures, one after the other. On 14 July 1942, the first train left for the Westerbork transit camp, from where where people were deported to Auschwitz. 107.000 Jews were deported from the Netherlands. Only after the war did their horrific fate become fully known: at least 102,000 of them were murdered, died or worked to death in the Nazi camps. This tragedy left deep scars in Dutch society.
Photo archives and private collections at home and abroad were consulted for this project. Many background details were retrieved, making the images even more poignant. The result is an impressive selection of almost 400 photos with detailed captions. This book is a memorial to the persecution of the Jews in photographs
