University of Southern California Shoah Foundation
The USC Shoah Foundation recorded 2,838 testimonies which refer to the Netherlands. They are in various languages (including 1,083 in Dutch) and were gathered in several different countries (1,062 in the Netherlands).
A large number of interviewees talk about the prewar Jewish communities in Holland: some 1,439 Jewish survivors interviewed by the Shoah Foundation were born in the Netherlands, growing up in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and other locations.
After Hitler came to power in 1933, refugees from Germany and Austria fled to Holland, some making their way further on Kindertransports to the United Kingdom or immigrating to the United States.
After the German invasion of May 1940, the situation gradually became ever more perilous for Jews. The Dutch testimonies describe the imposition of anti-Jewish laws, such as the wearing of the yellow star; the role of the Joodse Raad (Jewish Council or Judenrat) and its leaders Abraham Asscher and David Cohen, among others; the formation of the Amsterdam ghetto and the use of the Hollandsche Schouwburg as a collection center; the deportations to the Westerbork and Vught (Herzogenbusch) concentration camps and, from there, to Sobibor or to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. Out of 30,000 Jews deported from the Netherlands to the Sobibor death camp in Poland, there are only 19 known to have survived; the USC Shoah Foundation archive has interviews with five.
The archive contains many interviews of survivors who successfully hid or assumed false identities. Another major topic is involvement in the Dutch underground, with content about the Nederlandse Binnenlandse Strijdkrachte as well as specific groups like Landelijke Knokploegen.
The testimonies give information on Dutch aid givers such as Leendert Overduin, Corrie Ten Boom, and Joop Westerweel, and of rescue efforts such as the so-called Philips Group. There are discussions of those who attempted to help Jews avoid deportation, such as Walter Süskind and Piet Meerburg.
Additionally, the archive contains 113 interviews with Rescuers and Aid Providers born in the Netherlands, including 79 in Dutch; 77 of these interviews were conducted in Holland.
Selected Indexing Terms
Abraham Puls & Sons
Apeldoornsche Bos roundup (January 21, 1943)
Asscher, Abraham
attitudes toward the Netherlands and/or the Dutch
Barneveld List
Bastiaans, Jan
Bernhard, Prince of the Netherlands
Bezige Bij
Calmeyer List
Cohen, David
Communistische Partij Nederland
Diamond Jews
Dutch armed forces
Dutch camp guards
Dutch camp personnel
Dutch civilian laborers
Dutch forced labor civilian supervisors
Dutch ghetto inhabitants
Dutch government officials
Dutch history
Dutch kapos
Dutch police and security forces
Dutch prison guards
Dutch prisoner functionaries
Dutch prisoners
Dutch prisoners of war
Dutch Red Cross
Dutch refugees
Dutch resistance fighters
Dutch resistance groups
Dutch Socialist Party
Dutch soldiers
Dutch units
Dutch Zionist Students' Organization
Ehrlich, Max
February Strike (1941)
Frederiks, K.J.
Herzogenbusch (Netherlands : Concentration Camp)
Hollandsche Schouwburg (Amsterdam, Netherlands : Deportation Center)
Japanese invasion of Netherlands East Indies (December 20, 1941)
Joodse Raad
Julianna, Queen of Holland
Landelijke Knokploegen
Landelijke Organisatie voor Hulp aan Onderduikers
Meerburg, Piet
Naamloze Vennootschap
Nationaal Socialistische Nederlandse Arbeidspartij
Nederlandse Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten
Nederlandse Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten
NSNAP members
Oorlogspleegkinderenbureau
Oranje Vrijbuiters
Orde Dienst Verzetsgroep
Overdiujn, Leendert
Parool-groep
Philips Group
Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiders Partij
Süskind, Walter
TD-Groep
Ten Boom, Corrie
Trouw-Groep
Vrij Nederland
Vrije Groepen Amsterdam
Weinreb, Friedrich
Werkdorp Nieuwesluis
Westerbork (Netherlands : Concentration Camp)
Westerweel, Joop
Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands
Zündler, Alfons
