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Square in the centre of Amsterdam. Before the Second World War this square was the centre of Amsterdam’s Jewish neighbourhood. The Sunday market held on the Waterlooplein is a real attraction for Amsterdammers.
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The Franks, just as many other Jews, look for a safe haven away from Nazi Germany. Otto Frank goes to Amsterdam and sets up his Opekta.
Because we’re Jewish, my father emigrated to Holland in 1933.
"I remember when I went looking for work, that it was so difficult to find something, that I started crying."
Only a limited number of refugees from Nazi Germany are admitted into the Netherlands starting from June. Amsterdam is also suffering from the world economic crisis. Supporters of different political movements clash regularly.
I’ve experienced some hard times. I had no work. I did all I could to find work, but I couldn’t find any...
Anne Frank goes to school. In the new neighbourhood where she lives she is able to play happily with her friends. But in the old centre of Amsterdam there are more and more anti-Semitic actions by Nazi supporters.
She was very bright-eyed...She was a very lively child.
Otto Frank’s business, Opekta, becomes better known and the family is doing well. In Amsterdam protests against anti-Semitism increase but the NSB wins more support.
We wanted to be good Germans.
The Frank family becomes more established and joins the Liberal Jewish congregation. Workers unite and appeal for better working conditions.
Fortunately we are in good health and hope together with everyone else for better times.
Many Jewish refugees flee to the Netherlands after Kristallnacht. Princess Juliana also feels connected to the Jewish community. But while more attention is drawn to the admittance of more Jews, NSB members threaten more intervention.
Anne Frank wasn’t a genius. I knew that she wanted to be a writer.
Anne Frank celebrates her tenth birthday without a care. The threat of war increases. Air raid shelters are made and on 29 August Dutch conscripts are mobilized.
At the end of the 1930’s more and more Jews from Germany flee to Amsterdam.
Nothing changes too much for the Frank family in the beginning. Opekta moves to the Prinsengracht. During air raids bombs cause death and injury in Amsterdam.
When we got to IJmuiden, the last boat had just left port.
It starts with a cinema ban but rapidly Jews are banned from virtually all public places. Jewish children must attend separate schools. This also applies to Anne and Margot Frank.
We weren’t allowed to go to many places anymore.
On her thirteenth birthday Anne Frank receives a diary. A few days later she writes about the situation in Amsterdam. The introduction of the Jewish star and the raids. In July the Frank family goes into hiding.
One day Greetje had gone. She had left the Schouwburg. Disappeared. As if she had never been there.
After the introduction of the Jewish star the raids really started. Neighbours and friends received their papers to report. After the curfew roads were closed off and the bridges opened.
As soon as I went inside I knew something terrible had happened. There was no scenery on the stage and it looked as if there had been a burglary.
Miep told us that they were dragging Jews from house after house again in South Amsterdam.
While the Frank family is in hiding thousands of Jews are deported from Amsterdam. The resistance tries to hinder the deportations by attacks including one on the Public Registry. It doesn’t stop them.
‘…as the reports from outside grow worse and worse, the radio with its wondrous voice, helps us not to lose heart…
The Register Office took an extra beating because the firemen flooded the whole building instead of just putting out the fire. That does my heart good!
The entire corner of Vijzelstraat and Singel has gone up in flames. The number of air strikes on German cities is increasing daily. We haven’t had a good night’s rest in ages(…).
On 4 August the people in hiding in the secret annex are discovered and arrested. From Westerbork they are taken to Auschwitz. When the Allies land in the south of the Netherlands there is hope that the country will be liberated. German soldiers and NSB members flee the country after Dolle Dinsdag (‘Mad Tuesday’).
The Allies arrive in Holland.
In Amsterdam everyone is hungry, there’s no fuel, no gas, no electricity and very little bread...
The winter of starvation plagues Amsterdam. Many die from hunger and cold. Edith, Margot and Anne Frank die in the camps. Only Otto Frank survives. The Canadians reach Amsterdam.
Queuing, always queuing. Everywhere you see people queuing.
A celebration at the Dam on 7 May is ruined when people are killed after German soldiers shoot at the crowd. On 8 May Amsterdam is officially liberated. Otto Frank returns. He knows that Edith is dead. He only hears later that his two daughters have not survived.
When I got back to Amsterdam everything was in ruins.
“We stood facing each other, speechless. Finally, Frank spoke. “Miep,” he said quietly, “Miep, Edith is not coming back”
On 3 May 1946 the first official commemoration for those who died during the war is held. Anne Frank’s diary is published on 25 June 1947. Life in Amsterdam slowly gets back to normal. Of the 70,000 Jews who lived in the city in 1940 only 10,000 have survived the war.
To me, however, this apparently inconsequential diary by a child... stammered out in a child's voice, embodies all the hideousness of fascism, more so than all the evidence at Nuremberg put together.
Even five years after the liberation the reverberations from the war are still clearly noticeable. The Jewish community thanks Amsterdam for the help given to Jews with a monument.
To those who protected the Dutch Jews during the years of the occupation. Protected by your love. Encouraged by your resistance. Mourning with you.
Due to the economic crisis there is much poverty and unemployment in the city. The NSB becomes more popular, but there are also protests against the terrible treatment of Jews in Germany.
The Nazis occupy the Netherlands and anti-Jewish regulations follow in quick succession. In 1943, Amsterdam is officially declared to be Jew free.
Amsterdam slowly starts to pick itself up again. But will never be the same again after the decimation of its Jewish population.
In what sort of city did Anne Frank live? See how the occupation and the persecution of the Jews in Amsterdam have left their mark.
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