Jacobus L. Lentz to Mayors and Commissioners of Municipalities in Netherlands. From the Hague

Authors

Object ID

2019.2.2

Object Name

Letter

Date

8-21-1941

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Printed Title "RIJKSINSPECTIE van de BEVOLKINGSREGISTERS" in black text on tan paper, two holes punched in left side, bottom marked D II/57

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Controversial Dutch civil servant J. L. Lentz was the consummate perfectionistic bureaucrat, working tirelessly as head of the Population Registration Office in The Hague to develop and refine a population registration system, along with an identity card, which would effectively cover the entire population of the Netherlands. The German occupation authorities adapted Lentz’s detailed work to create a central register of Jews with links between the central register and the municipal registration offices. The registration records, the identity cards, and Lentz’s 1942 report on location of Jews in the Netherlands culminating in so-called “dot maps” showing population density of Jews by district, were ultimately used in the creation of transport lists by the SS, to better locate and apprehend Jews in order to facilitate deportation to extermination centers from the Netherlands. Ultimately, and perhaps unwittingly, the effect of Lentz’s obsessive diligence in developing these overlapping systems of identification, used to great effect by the Nazis, contributed to a survival rate of Jews in the Netherlands of only 27 percent. This letter sent to government commissioners of the municipalities in the Netherlands references the Nazi Occupation Regulation VO 6/1941 which is the requirement that all persons of Jewish blood, whole or part, must register within a specified period of time. Lentz is tasked with creating and assembling the central register of all persons of Jewish blood. He writes the necessary explanations to authorities that the “notification formulas” have not been sent to him. He states that this has resulted in missing a correct overview of the actual number of persons obliged to report in each municipality, and he attempts to secure the commissioners’ cooperation in his role as head of inspection in the Office of Population Registration in The Hague.

Dimensions

12 3/4 x 8 1/4"

Keywords

Jacob L. Lentz, Netherlands, Identity Cards, Population Registration

Subcollection

Netherlands

Recommended Citation

"Jacobus L. Lentz to Mayors and Commissioners of Municipalities in Netherlands. From the Hague" (1941). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2019.2.2.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1406