Jewish persecution

There has been anti-Semitism, hatred of Jews, in Europe for centuries. In Germany, the Jews are blamed with the Communists for the loss of World War I. Hitler and his National Socialists begin building concentration camps after taking power in 1933.
The beginning of the Holocaust, the murder of about six million Jews.

Disenfranchised citizens

With the Nuremberg Laws (1935), German Jews become disenfranchised citizens. Their businesses are expropriated. The Nazis try to force them to emigrate through intimidation, violence, discrimination and systematic exclusion. During Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 1938), the Nazis attack Jews and their property throughout Germany.

On January 20, 1942, the Nazi leadership meets at the Wannsee Conference to discuss a "final solution" to the "Jewish question"(Endlosung der Judenfrage). It is decided on the systematic extermination of the European Jews. At the end of World War II, some six million Jews are found to have been murdered, most of them in death camps.

Razzias and Westerbork

Transit camp Westerbork during the war years.
Photo: Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork

On May 10, 1940, the day of the German invasion, the Netherlands has about 140,000 Jewish residents and more than 20,000 German-Jewish refugees. The German occupiers hold their first round-up of Jews in the Netherlands on February 22, 1941 in Amsterdam, more than 400 men are rounded up.
This leads to mass protests, the February Strike.

From May 2, 1942, Jews were required to wear a yellow star with the word "Jew," as an identifying mark. On June 26 of that year, the occupying forces decided that Jews would be sent to Germany for "work release. Camp Westerbork in Drenthe was set up as a transit camp.

Jozef van Spier with daughter Bep in the garden of their house at 72 Muntweg, summer 1944. The photo was taken when Jozef was allowed a week's leave from camp Westerbork. He was interned there with 7 other Jews who were married to a non-Jewish woman. Van Spier always held a briefcase for the Star of David. It is the only known photograph of a Jewish Nijmegen man wearing the Star of David. Jozef van Spier managed to survive the Second World War.
Photo Private collection B. Detmers-van Spier (†)

Trains

The last transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz,
September 1944. Photo: Memorial Camp Westerbork

Most Jews who are rounded up stay in Westerbork for only a few days. Then they are transported to a German concentration camp. On July 15, 1942, the first train leaves Westerbork for Auschwitz in Poland. More than one hundred transports will follow until September 13, 1944, to Auschwitz or other concentration camps such as Theresienstadt, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Sobibor and Ravensbrück.

In all, some 107,000 Jews were deported from the Netherlands to "the East. At least 102,000 were murdered, succumbed or worked to death in the concentration camps. Only 5,000 of the deported Dutch Jews survive the Holocaust.

Nijmegen

Before World War II, Nijmegen had more than 500 Jewish citizens. In the fall of 1942, a systematic hunt for the Jews began here as well, led by the Nijmegen police. In a large raid on the night of November 17-18, 1942, 196 Jews were arrested at one time.
In April 1943, Police Commissioner Van Dijk declared Nijmegen "Judenrein " - free of Jews.

More than 430 Nijmegen Jews were transported to German concentration camps, only 13 returned alive.
71 Nijmegen Jews manage to survive the war by going into hiding.

Family De Wijze at the Stationsplein in 1940. From left to right: daughters Tina and Joke, Herman van Beek (Elly's later husband), mother Lea,
oldest daughter Elly and aunt Sara.
Photo: Regionaal Archief Nijmegen

Family The Wise

From left to right: Kitty, Elly, Joke and Tina de Wijze
Photo: Elly de Wijze and Paul Vyth Collection

Among the Jews rounded up in the great roundup on the night of Nov. 17-18, 1942, were three sisters: Kitty (1920), Joke (1922) and Tina (1924) the Wise. The next day they are put on the train to Westerbork and deported to Auschwitz on December 12.

They throw out some postcards from the moving train, addressed to their parents. Kitty writes, "We will always do our best and remain firm.

Kitty and Joke are gassed immediately upon arrival at Auschwitz on December 15, 1942. Tina, their parents and sister Elly also perished in the German death camps.

Monument

Photo: Erik van 't Hullenaar

A little square in Nijmegen has been named after the previously mentioned Kitty de Wijze, near the synagogue on Nonnenstraat. On the spot stands the Jewish monument, a statue of a mourning human figure, symbol of the Jewish Nijmegen people who were deported and never returned. The statue was made by Paul de Swaaf.

Against the facade of an adjacent building seven bronze plaques with all the names of the 449 Jewish victims of the Nazi regime from Nijmegen.