The persecution of the Jews of the Netherlands began on May 10, 1940 with the Nazi occupation. Arthur Seyss-Inquart was placed in charge of the civil administration. Anti-Jewish legislation was rolled out with ruthless efficiency: Jews lost their professions and their homes, children their schools. Identifying yellow stars with the ominous script "Jood" became compulsory wear. Businesses and other assets had to be registered, and a Jewish council - the Joodse Raad - was established with Abraham Asscher and David Cohen in charge of implementing Nazi policy, with maximal compliance with respect to the Jews. Deportations to Westerbork internment camp and the Vught concentration camp commenced in July 1942, and thence Auschwitz and Sobibor extermination camps. Many Jews went into hiding, including Anne Frank and her family. Dutch police assisted the Nazi authorities in rounding up Jews, as did the so-called Henneicke Column, who were essentially Dutch bounty hunters paid for tracking down Jews.
Critically important in rounding up Jews was the work of Dutch civil servant J.L. Lentz, head of the Population Registration Office in the Hague. Lentz developed 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 work to create a central register of Jews with links between the central register and the municipal registration offices. The registration record, the identity cards, and Lentz's 1942 report on the location of Jews in the Netherlands, culminating in so-called "dot maps" showing the population density of Jews by district, were used in the creation of transport lists by the Nazi SS. Ultimately 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.
The van Perlsteins were a prosperous family living in a vibrant Jewish community in pre-war Amsterdam whose lives were irrevocably changed under the German occupation. Philip Samuel (Sam) van Perlstein, had been an importer of Orientalia before expanding into other areas of profitability such as board games; his company, van Perlstein and Roeper Bosch, held the first license in the Netherlands to sell Monopoly. A copy of the stock market game Beursspel is displayed at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam; Peter van Pels had received it as a 16th birthday present, four months after going into hiding with the Franks.
Sam van Perlstein had understood early the plight of the Jews of Holland. He and his son Gerard van Perlstein assisted in setting up a resistance network. They were able to establish a relationship with Werner Klemke, a German Wehrmacht soldier and talented artist who despised Nazism. Klemke risked his life forging documents for Dutch Jews - identity cards, baptismal and birth certificates, etc. - which enabled some Jews to leave Holland and others to go into hiding. Klemke’s documents ultimately saved the lives of many Jews during the occupation.
While Sam and Gerard survived the war, others in his family were less fortunate. Sam’s brother Herman was murdered in Auschwitz in November 1942. He had been a prominent member of the Amsterdam rowing club. Sam’s uncle Bernard, whom Sam was able to help establish a business trading yeast when his own business failed in the Great Depression, was to be arrested for not wearing his Jewish star, and subsequently deported to Vught concentration camp and ultimately Auschwitz where he perished in January 1944. Siegfried Herman van Perlstein, a prominent lawyer and prosecutor, also perished at Auschwitz in January 1943. And Sam’s mother, Sara van Perlstein-Hecht, who resided at 160 Van Breestraat in Amsterdam, took her own life in March 1943.
-- Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Jewish Refugees in Holland
2014.1.92
Front: An image of two boys receiving a medical check-up from two nurses with typed information on the right side. Back: Title and date are stamped.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
AP wire photo from Holland, 1938 verso: "Nurses apply the usual necessary childhood sanitary precautions to these youngsters, among 23 Jewish refugee children who crossed the border from Germany the night of November 15. Dutch authorities are looking out for their welfare."
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Flight from Germany
2014.1.96
Front: An image of a young man being served soup from a large tureen by Boodons Hosang, the Burgomaster of Naarden. Verso: Typed and handwritten information regarding the image and a stamped date.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: AP wire photo of Jewish children Germany who have crossed into Holland from Frankfurt, Germany in 1938. According to the press photo, 23 children had arrived on November 15 and went to Naarden near Amsterdam, where they were looked after by Dutch authorities. Herr Boodons Hosang, Burgomaster of Naarden is seen giving food to the Jewish children. The press photo cites the "barbaric drive against the Jews in Germany" as the reason for the influx of refugee children.
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Press Photograph of Arthur Seyss-Inquart
2019.2.265
Photograph of Arthur Seyss-Inquart in small, round glasses, blue background. Back includes “MEMBERS OF THE NEW AUSTRIAN CABINET” in blue print.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Formerly governor of Austria under the Third Reich, deputy to Hans Frank in the General Government of German-occupied Poland, Seyss-Inquart was appointed Reich commissioner in charge of the civilian administration of the occupied Netherlands in May 1940. In this role he banned all political parties except the NSB, the Dutch Nazi Party. He was responsible for the execution of Dutch nationals and for the rounding up of the Jews of the Netherlands. He oversaw the registration of 140,000 Dutch Jews and the establishment of the transit camp at Westerbork, and the final deportation of Jews to extermination centers: Buchenwald, Mauthausen, and Auschwitz. Out of 140,000 Jews in Holland, 110,000 were murdered under his administration. At Nuremberg Seyss-Inquart was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to death.
Press photograph reads verso “Members of the New Austrian Cabinet, Reconstructed to Meet Hitler’s Demands. 2/21/1938.” Photo taken one month before Anschluss, the forced annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany.
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Notice of Registration from the American Consulate in Rotterdam
2020.1.5
Slip of paper with printed and typewritten text in English. Stamped with "American Consulate of Rotterdam, Netherlands." Name "Herbert V. Olds, American Vice Consul." printed at bottom right.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Notice of Registration from the American Consulate in Rotterdam, Netherlands, acknowledges both Margarete and Hans-Heinrich Glucksmann.
[Related items: 2020.1.4a-d, 2020.1.6]
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Judaica Postcard from Canary Islands to Ida Hecht in Amsterdam with Spanish Censor Marks
2019.2.274
Postcard with brown postage stamp and blue postage stamp in top right corner, “CENSURA MILITAR LAS PALMAS” stamped in purple ink, addressed to “Ida Hecht,” writing in blue.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Postcard written days before German occupation of Netherlands. Addressed to Ida Hecht at an address for Sara Hecht in Amsterdam. It is not clear how they are related, but it is known that at some point during the occupation Ida Hecht was in hiding at the home of Bernard van Perlstein.
The van Perlsteins were a prosperous family living in a vibrant Jewish community in pre-war Amsterdam whose lives were irrevocably changed under the German occupation. Philip Samuel (Sam) van Perlstein, had been an importer of Orientalia before expanding into other areas of profitability such as board games; his company, van Perlstein and Roeper Bosch, held the first license in the Netherlands to sell Monopoly. A copy of the stock market game Beursspel is displayed at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam; Peter van Pels had received it as a 16th birthday present, four months after going into hiding with the Franks.
Sam van Perlstein had understood early the plight of the Jews of Holland. He and his son Gerard van Perlstein assisted in setting up a resistance network. They were able to establish a relationship with Werner Klemke, a German Wehrmacht soldier and talented artist who despised Nazism. Klemke risked his life forging documents for Dutch Jews - identity cards, baptismal and birth certificates, etc. - which enabled some Jews to leave Holland and others to go into hiding. Klemke’s documents ultimately saved the lives of many Jews during the occupation.
While Sam and Gerard survived the war, others in his family were less fortunate. Sam’s brother Herman was murdered in Auschwitz in November 1942. He had been a prominent member of the Amsterdam rowing club. Sam’s uncle Bernard, whom Sam was able to help establish a business trading yeast when his own business failed in the Great Depression, was to be arrested for not wearing his Jewish star, and subsequently deported to Vught concentration camp and ultimately Auschwitz where he perished in January 1944. Siegfried Herman van Perlstein, a prominent lawyer and prosecutor, also perished at Auschwitz in January 1943. And Sam’s mother, Sara van Perlstein-Hecht, who resided at 160 Van Breestraat in Amsterdam, took her own life in March 1943.
[Related items: 2019.2.273-.278]
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Censored Postcard from M. Frankenthal During Early German Occupation of Netherlands to New York
2019.2.286
Postcard with two green vertical lines down the center, “M. FRANKENTHAL PRINS MAURITSLAAN 90 OVERVEEN” stamped on lower left of page, one gray “NEDERLAND” postage stamp and two green “NEDERLAND” postage stamps in upper right corner. Back includes writing in black ink, “Amsterdam, 29. Mai 1940” written in upper right corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Postcard written 19 days after Germans occupied Netherlands.
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Censored Postcard from M. Brandon During Early German Occupation of Netherlands to New York
2019.2.288
Envelope with two red vertical lines down the center, red postage in upper right corner, “M. Brandon” written on lower left side.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Following the roll-out of similar measures in Germany in April 1933, the German occupation authority in the Netherlands in 1940 instructed the Dutch Ministry of the Interior to purge the government and public bureaucracies of Jews. An individual of aryan race would be defined by having no Jewish blood among his or her grandparents (two sets) or any history of membership in a Jewish community. Jews themselves would be required to register their business assets in 1940 and register as Jews In January 1941. Almost 160,000 Jews registered, including 25,000 from Germany. A Jewish council, or Judenrat, (Joodse Raad) was established in 1941 as well, to answer to the Nazis and pass on information the Nazis wanted transmitted to the Jewish community at large. For example, in doing the bidding of the Nazi administrators, the Raad helped select Jews for labor camps. This of course would create an untenable and controversial situation for the Raad leaders - Cohen and Asscher - who risked being taken for collaborators with the Nazis.
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German Censored Airmail to Dr. Albert Stuehler in Amsterdam from Paul Stuehler in San Francisco
2019.2.293
Envelope with six purple postage stamps along top and two purple stamps along right side, “VIA TRANSATLANTIC-CLIPPER” printed and underlined in blue and red, large “B” written in red on left side.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:Dr. Albert Stuehler and his wife, Else, resided at Zuider Amstellaan 254 II in Amsterdam during the German occupation. Like the Frank family, the Stuehlers had lived in Frankfort, Germany prior to the war. Albert perished in Auschwitz in November 1943, Else at Dachau in October 1943. This cover contained a letter from his brother Paul in San Francisco, no doubt concerned about the recent Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
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Postcard from New York to Sam van Perlstein
2019.2.276
Postcard with green U.S. postage stamp in the top right corner, addressed to “Mr. Sam van Perlstein” in center. Back of letter typed and dated “July 22, 1940” near top.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
The sender of this postcard is discussing business prospects in America with Sam van Perlstein several months after the German occupation of the Netherlands.
The van Perlsteins were a prosperous family living in a vibrant Jewish community in pre-war Amsterdam whose lives were irrevocably changed under the German occupation. Philip Samuel (Sam) van Perlstein, had been an importer of Orientalia before expanding into other areas of profitability such as board games; his company, van Perlstein and Roeper Bosch, held the first license in the Netherlands to sell Monopoly. A copy of the stock market game Beursspel is displayed at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam; Peter van Pels had received it as a 16th birthday present, four months after going into hiding with the Franks.
Sam van Perlstein had understood early the plight of the Jews of Holland. He and his son Gerard van Perlstein assisted in setting up a resistance network. They were able to establish a relationship with Werner Klemke, a German Wehrmacht soldier and talented artist who despised Nazism. Klemke risked his life forging documents for Dutch Jews - identity cards, baptismal and birth certificates, etc. - which enabled some Jews to leave Holland and others to go into hiding. Klemke’s documents ultimately saved the lives of many Jews during the occupation.
While Sam and Gerard survived the war, others in his family were less fortunate. Sam’s brother Herman was murdered in Auschwitz in November 1942. He had been a prominent member of the Amsterdam rowing club. Sam’s uncle Bernard, whom Sam was able to help establish a business trading yeast when his own business failed in the Great Depression, was to be arrested for not wearing his Jewish star, and subsequently deported to Vught concentration camp and ultimately Auschwitz where he perished in January 1944. Siegfried Herman van Perlstein, a prominent lawyer and prosecutor, also perished at Auschwitz in January 1943. And Sam’s mother, Sara van Perlstein-Hecht, who resided at 160 Van Breestraat in Amsterdam, took her own life in March 1943.
[Related items: 2019.2.273-.278]
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De Joden in Nederland by Hans Graf von Montis
2019.2.281
Soft cover book with the title “De Joden” in black ink and “Nederland” in light blue. The cover features three caricatures of Jewish men with magenta skin in decreasing heights from left to right standing on a blue image of the Netherlands.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Dutch antisemitic propaganda pamphlet with the typical tropes, exaggerations, caricatures and stereotypes in both words and photographs, e.g., Jewish religious habits, greed, etc., comparing Jews of the day unfavorably to the “true” Netherlanders. Henry Ford, the American automobile magnate and notorious antisemite, who published his antisemitic screeds in the Dearborn Independent - a newspaper he owned - is discussed herein. “Von Montis” was in fact the nom de plume of Hans Paul Kreutzer, who would be arrested during a corruption trial and subsequently committed suicide while in jail.
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Postcards Sent from Berlin to Westerbork Transit Camp in Holland Following the Return of the SS St. Louis
2020.1.4a-d
a: Postcard postmarked 18.2.41 with German text printed in red and handwritten letter on opposite side. Address written in pencil. Markings on front in blue and red pencil.
b: Postcard postmarked 21.3.41 with German text printed in red as well as handwritten text in purple ink and letter written in pencil on opposite side.
c: Postcard postmarked 25.3.41 with German text printed in red and handwritten letter on opposite side.
d: Postcard postmarked 12.4.41 with German text printed in red and handwritten letter on opposite side.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Margarete and Hans-Heinrich Glucksmann had been passengers aboard the ship SS St. Louis in 1939 (“Voyage of the Damned”). The St. Louis and its Jewish passengers fleeing Nazi Germany were refused entry to Cuba and subsequently the United States and was forced to return to Europe. These four postcards were sent by Margarete in Berlin to Hans-Heinrich following the return of the St. Louis to Holland. She signs her name with the obligatory “Sara.” At the time of writing, Hans-Heinrich was being held in the Westerbork transit camp in Hooghalen in the Netherlands. The postcards bear German censor marks and stamps.
[Related items: 2020.1.5, 2020.1.6]
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German Order to Register All Dutch Jews Broadside
2012.1.564
White broadside with blue text in Dutch. Titled, "Aanmeldingsplicht van personen van geheel of gedeeltelijk Joodschen bloede."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A broadside Grevenhage [Den Haag] in Dutch bearing the heading "Obligation to notify persons of Jewish blood, whole or part." It demanded that all Jews in the town register with the authorities. This move was part of a slow campaign against the Jews of the Netherlands that began shortly after the invasion of May 1940. Unlike Poland and other occupied countries, the repression of the Jews in the Netherlands was a series of discriminatory measures implemented over many months in order to dilute public resistance. This order did meet resistance from the Dutch people. On February 25, 1941 the Dutch Communist Party organized a strike of municipal workers in Amsterdam that rapidly grew into a general strike across the country. The strike was crushed in days, but it remains as the only such anti-pogrom strike ever staged in Nazi-occupied Europe.
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Notification Requirement for Jews of Full or Partial Blood: The Hague, Netherlands
2019.2.1
Printed "AANMELDINGSPLICHT" in dark blue text across top of sheet; three columns marked with Roman numerals below
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
With the occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, the effort to exclude Jews from civil society commenced. Nazi leadership in the Netherlands – as in Germany – began to slowly and systematically tighten the vise on the Jewish community by implementing a series of discriminatory measures over the course of months in an effort to reduce possible public resistance. Jewish officials were not allowed to be appointed to or remain in public office, and access to public areas such as movie theatres was denied. And this Dutch broadside from The Hague, titled an “Obligation to Notify Persons of Jewish Blood in Whole or Part” announced the official requirement of Jews to register with the local population authorities where they lived. Data collection was centralized and utilized by the SS and became the basis for the deportation of the Jews of the Netherlands. While some resistance to these measures existed, e.g., the country-wide general strike inspired by the Dutch Communist Party municipal worker strike in February 1941, it was quickly crushed. Jews of The Hague were eventually taken to internment camps such as Westerbork beginning in August 1942, prior to deportation to extermination centers. More than 12,000 of the 17,000 Jews living in The Hague before the war were murdered by the Germans.
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Roundup of Dutch Jews Broadside
2012.1.78
A bright red sheet titled "Bekendmaking" with Dutch text.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Broadside issued by SS Brigade leader Hans Rauter ordering roundup of Dutch Jews following an incident in which a number of German police were sprayed with ammonia upon entering an ice cream shop in Amsterdam named Koko. Apparently, the ammonia was part of a system designed to ward off unwanted intruders indiscriminately. In retaliation for this perceived indignity, SS Brigade leader Hans Rauter ordered the roundup of four hundred Jewish men aged twenty to thirty-five years, warning that any demonstration against German occupation authorities would be brutally suppressed. Most of these men were deported to concentration camps. In response, the Dutch Communist Party organized a municipal workers’ strike in Amsterdam that quickly grew into a general strike across the country, which Rauter indeed brutally suppressed. Ernst Cahn, the owner of the ice cream shop, was shot by a firing squad soon after refusing to identify under torture the individuals who had installed the ammonia canister in his shop. His partner in the ice cream shop, Alfred Kohn, would be deported to Auschwitz where he died in April 1945.
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Postcard to Albert Schoenflies in Hooghalen-Oost in Drenthe (Westerbork) from Beekbergen, Netherlands
2021.1.53
Postcard with green border on front and writing in black ink on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Albert Moritz Schoenflies was an attorney, born in 1898. He was the son of Arthur Moritz Schoenflies, a German mathematician and professor, renowned for his contributions to set theory and crystallography. Albert was married to Ilse Cacile Eisenberg in Frankfurt. They lived with their sons Peter Arthur, Hans, and Walter Kurt in Neuwied, Germany. The family belonged to a group of Protestant Jewish refugees sheltered in Schoorl. Transported to Westerbork, they were sent to Theresienstadt September 6. 1944. On October 28, 1944 they were all deported to Auschwitz where they perished.
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Dutch Registration for Jewish Man
2012.1.557
Tan paper with title, "Aanmeldingsformulier voor één persoon, die geheel of gedeeltelijk van joodschen bloede is (Verordening 6/1941)." Includes a printed table and text, as well as additional typewritten text.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Dutch partly-printed D.S. 1p. legal folio, a "... Registration form for one person fully or partly of Jewish descent (Regulation 6/1941)" for Jacob David Perlberg of Hamburg now residing in the Hague and noting that his last residence "in the great German Reich (including the protectorate Bohemia-Moravia)... General for the occupied Polish Territory ... Hamburg." Perlberg is noted to be a tailor who is married to a Jew with two Jewish grandparents.
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Identification Card Issued to Jews in Amsterdam Identifying Them as Jews
2019.2.298
Document includes large Star of David near top in blue, “BEWIJS VAN AANMELDING” printed in black, stamped with date “APR 1941” near bottom. Back includes “Jan van Eyckstraat 12” printed at top of page.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:Card issued to Curt Bluth, originally from Germany, but living in the Netherlands. His wife, Friederike Henschel Bluth, is named on the card below. The card is signed by Abraham Asscher, who, along with David Cohen, co-chaired the Jewish Council or, Joodse Raad. This council mediated German policy in the Netherlands with respect to Jews. Asscher and Cohen have been criticized for their cooperation and even collaboration with the Nazis by the Dutch government in exile and others.
Friederike Henschel seems to have worked for the “Expositur which was responsible for contact between the Germans and the Jewish Council. She may have survived the war. Her husband was deported to Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen, but he too may have survived.
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First Edition Copy of "Het Joodsdhe Weekblad," Amsterdam Jewish Counsel Newsletter
2014.1.210
A first edition copy of "Het Joodsdhe Weedblad," which introduces the "Joodsche Raad voor Amsterdam" [Jewish Counsel of Amsterdam] and the newsletter. Created by counsel members A. Asscher and Professor Dr. D. Cohen.
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Dutch ID Card (Persoonsbewijs) of J. Barselaar, Developed by J.L. Lentz
2019.2.269
Document labelled “G 41 No 013919” three times along top, two fingerprints near bottom, red border around fingerprint in bottom right corner marked “1. – GULDEN PERSOONSBEWIJS.” Back includes photograph of woman on left side.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: ID card designed by the obsessive J.L. Lentz included passport photos and fingerprints, address, signature, and the number of the issuing municipality. They were that much more difficult to forge or falsify for having three watermarks. Every Dutch citizen older than 15 had to carry this card as valid proof of identification. And for Jews, there was the required “J” along with a second “J” stamped on the card to make individuals more recognizable during checks. All Jews- full or partial- had to be registered. Thus, along with municipal and central registries, the dot maps which identified the geographical location by district of Jews, the Persoonsbewijs was a lethal instrument in the Nazi effort to round up Jews for deportation to transit and extermination camps.
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Censored Postcard from Lisbon, Portugal to Sara van Perlstein in Amsterdam, Netherlands
2019.2.275
Postcard with large blue illustration along top titled “BILHETE POSTAL,” addressed to “Frau Sara van Perlstein.”
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
For Jews attempting to flee occupied Europe and the grip of the Nazi menace, Portugal could be a relatively safe harbor. The Salazar government struggled to maintain a semblance of neutrality, continuing a friendly relationship with Britain despite increasing pressure from Germany, and this permitted thousands of Jews to reach Lisbon. While Salazar would eventually tighten requirements for immigration, his diplomat in Vichy France, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, heroically carried on issuing large numbers of visas to Jews, as a consequence of which he would be recalled. Portugal would eventually increase the number of entry visas it granted to Jews as the tide of war turned against the Nazis. Once having arrived in Lisbon, refugees would then be able to seek the assistance of a number of agencies and organizations who could help them emigrate to South America or the United States.
The van Perlsteins were a prosperous family living in a vibrant Jewish community in pre-war Amsterdam whose lives were irrevocably changed under the German occupation. Philip Samuel (Sam) van Perlstein, had been an importer of Orientalia before expanding into other areas of profitability such as board games; his company, van Perlstein and Roeper Bosch, held the first license in the Netherlands to sell Monopoly. A copy of the stock market game Beursspel is displayed at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam; Peter van Pels had received it as a 16th birthday present, four months after going into hiding with the Franks.
Sam van Perlstein had understood early the plight of the Jews of Holland. He and his son Gerard van Perlstein assisted in setting up a resistance network. They were able to establish a relationship with Werner Klemke, a German Wehrmacht soldier and talented artist who despised Nazism. Klemke risked his life forging documents for Dutch Jews - identity cards, baptismal and birth certificates, etc. - which enabled some Jews to leave Holland and others to go into hiding. Klemke’s documents ultimately saved the lives of many Jews during the occupation.
While Sam and Gerard survived the war, others in his family were less fortunate. Sam’s brother Herman was murdered in Auschwitz in November 1942. He had been a prominent member of the Amsterdam rowing club. Sam’s uncle Bernard, whom Sam was able to help establish a business trading yeast when his own business failed in the Great Depression, was to be arrested for not wearing his Jewish star, and subsequently deported to Vught concentration camp and ultimately Auschwitz where he perished in January 1944. Siegfried Herman van Perlstein, a prominent lawyer and prosecutor, also perished at Auschwitz in January 1943. And Sam’s mother, Sara van Perlstein-Hecht, who resided at 160 Van Breestraat in Amsterdam, took her own life in March 1943.
[Related items: 2019.2.273-.278]
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Dutch ID Card (Persoonsbewijs) of J. Horsman, Developed by J.L. Lentz
2019.2.270
Document labelled “A 22 No 004760” three times along top, two fingerprints near bottom, gray border around fingerprint in bottom right corner marked “KOSTELOOS PERSOONSBEWIJS.” Back includes photograph of woman on left side.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: ID card designed by the obsessive J.L. Lentz included passport photos and fingerprints, address, signature, and the number of the issuing municipality. They were that much more difficult to forge or falsify for having three watermarks. Every Dutch citizen older than 15 had to carry this card as valid proof of identification. And for Jews, there was the required “J” along with a second “J” stamped on the card to make individuals more recognizable during checks. All Jews- full or partial- had to be registered. Thus, along with municipal and central registries, the dot maps which identified the geographical location by district of Jews, the Persoonsbewijs was a lethal instrument in the Nazi effort to round up Jews for deportation to transit and extermination camps.
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Marital Eligibility Document from Ghetto Kanczuga in Poland, Endorsed by Judenrat and Rabbi
2019.2.25
Title underlined twice, stamp in center in purple ink, Star of David stamped in purple, Nazi party postage stamp on left side of document.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Kanczuga was a small shtetl in southeastern Poland with a relatively small Jewish community. The Nazis had established a ghetto with approximately 800 Jews, some of whom were from other nearby villages. The ghetto was liquidated in August 1942.
This document, signed by assistant Rabbi Samuel Szmelke Westreich and Judenrat official Abraham Turm, declares that Malka Schupper is eligible to get married and has no claims or any demands against her. There are handstamps representing the Jewish Community of Kanczuga, a circular stamp for the Judenrat, and another circular stamp for assistant Rabbi Szmelke Westreich. There are signatures by both Abraham Turm and Rabbi Westreich. Malka Schupper (born 2-4-1920) married Rudolf Maurits de Leeuw (born 8-19-1917) from Winterswijk, Netherlands. He perished in an extermination camp in Central Europe on August 31st, 1944. Malka had been deported to Auschwitz where she perished in November 1942. Abraham Turm, a bookkeeper by profession, was murdered in Kanczuga. Samuel Szmelke Westreich from a family of Rabbis, son of Rabbi Josef Westreich, was also murdered in the Holocaust.
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Jacobus L. Lentz to Mayors and Commissioners of Municipalities in Netherlands. From the Hague
2019.2.2
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.
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German SS Feldpost Correspondence from the SS Freiwilligen Legion Niederlande
2019.2.287
Envelope address written in blue ink, “SS Feldpost” written in top right corner, stamped with round “FELDPOST” stamp dated “06.10.41” Letter written in blue ink, dated “5.10.1941” in upper right corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: The author of this letter was a member of the collaborationist Dutch volunteer SS-legion formed soon after the commencement of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, to assist Germans in their war against Bolshevism and Communism. Himmler and Hitler could make much of the idea that Germanic Europe was supporting their cause, since a number of Danes, Dutch, Finns, and Swedes had volunteered to serve in the Waffen-SS.
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Letter from Joodsche Raad Voor Amsterdam, Amsterdam’s Jewish Council or Judenrat
2020.1.8
Typewritten letter with "Joodsche Raad Voor Amsterdam" stamped in black ink at top right of page and purple ink at bottom right. Letter is signed in pencil.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Like other Jewish councils, the Joodsche Raad was ultimately controlled by German occupiers and the compliant Jewish members simply did their bidding as the noose continued to tighten. This letter emanates from the “Coordinating Commission Department” in Tilburg and informs Jews that moving about without a permit is now prohibited. In addition, municipal bathing facilities are off-limits to Jews. Further, music and gymnastics are no longer to be given to Jewish children by non-Jews. Jewish adults are, however, permitted to be educated by other Jews. These are the latest efforts on the part of the German occupiers to circumscribe civil liberties which Jews had heretofore taken for granted. Donations are requested for the purpose of establishing a library for Jews in Amsterdam, since Jews have been prohibited from utilizing other municipal libraries. The document is signed.