Eleven municipalities in North Holland that commissioned research into their role in World War II did not purchase any Jewish real estate during the war. Restitution of rights also took place later in the municipalities: family or heirs received their property back or compensation when a building was demolished. This is evident from the report ‘Jewish citizens in North Holland: Expropriation and restoration of rights’ of the North Holland Archives.
Commissioned by eleven municipalities in North Holland (Aalsmeer, Amstelveen, Beverwijk, Bloemendaal, Haarlemmermeer, Heemskerk, Heemstede, Uitgeest, Uithoorn, Velsen and Zandvoort), the North Holland Archives and the ‘Political History’ expert group of Radboud University Nijmegen have investigated whether buildings or plots of land were purchased from Jewish citizens by the municipalities mentioned above during the Second World War.
It was also investigated whether Jewish owners or their heirs still had to pay additional taxes over the war period, whether legal restoration had taken place for Jewish residents and their surviving relatives, and how the municipalities dealt with Jewish residents after their return.
Expropriations
The research shows that, generally speaking, the eleven municipalities (and their predecessors at the time) did not purchase expropriated Jewish property or plots of land; not from German occupiers and not from war buyers.
Yet there was one exception: the municipality of Amstelveen bought an official residence for the NSB mayor. “In other words: the municipality bought the property from the mayor, who had acquired it himself from a war buyer. The mayor’s desire for a representative official residence was the driving force here.”
The interpretation of ‘restitution of rights’
The researchers also found that restoration of rights had taken place in the eleven municipalities for most of the real estate: “That often happened in 1947 or 1948. Relatively early, compared to other Dutch municipalities.” Of restoration of rights refers to ‘only the restoration of property rights, not a perceived just solution to the consequences of war and occupation’.
The researchers also state: “The limited remaining archive accesses did not provide any indication of additional assessments and fines for municipal taxes over the years of occupation.”
Treatment of Jewish residents
The number of Jewish residents in the eleven North Holland municipalities was small. It is also not possible to systematically investigate in the archives how the municipalities behaved towards Jewish citizens during and after the occupation, the researchers conclude. “But we do have a tentative impression of how things went in the municipalities with a larger Jewish community, such as Beverwijk, Bloemendaal, Heemstede, Amstelveen and Zandvoort.” According to the researchers, the general picture is that municipal officials and the police cooperated with the Germans in the persecution of the Jews.
While today the special victimization of the Jewish population is taken for granted, the researchers argue that Dutch administrators viewed it differently during and just after the war. “One of the guiding principles was that no one should be favored or disadvantaged by the restoration of rights.”
The researchers explain that the owners of buildings that had been requisitioned by the German occupiers only received a small compensation from the municipality. “For Jews whose property was placed under trust, this compensation went to the predatory institutions or remained behind in the municipal treasury.”
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On Wednesday, May 31, the report Jewish Citizens in North Holland: Expropriation and Restoration of Rights with the findings of the researchers presented in the Janskerk in Haarlem. The research can be done through this link are downloaded.