Overview

Diamond traders are searched

April 17, 1942 Amsterdam

On 16 April 1942, Jewish diamond traders had to hand in their stock at the Rijksbureau voor Diamant [‘National Diamond Bureau’]. A day later, officials, led by an Amsterdam detective, searched the pockets of Jewish traders at the Diamond Exchange in Amsterdam. It was done in an impertinent and humiliating way. Traders who still carried diamonds had to hand them over.