The February Strike of 1941

Introduction

On 25 February 1941 Amsterdam was seized by a general strike in protest against the persecution of the Jews. One day afterwards the strike spread to the Zaanstreek (Zaan-area), Kennemerland (Haarlem and Velsen), Hilversum, Utrecht and Weesp. In Amsterdam public transport came to a complete standstill and nearly all other council-services went on strike as well. Tools were downed in shipbuilding and steel industry in the North of Amsterdam, at the company of Hollandia-Kattenburg and also in large multiple stores like Bijenkorf. City-wide shops and offices were closed. Many pupils left their classrooms. That day large crowds of people were constantly on the move in the centre of Amsterdam. Restrained emotions sought a way out, people wanted to openly oppose the German occupation troops, that had attacked our country on 10 May 1940 and no longer disguised their intentions to force their regime on us.

1. The strike’s premises

In the period prior to February 1941 barefaced German pressure on politics and economics in the Netherlands had increased. From the end of 1940 onwards carrying an identity-card was compulsory. June 1940 saw the German occupation force take the first of many anti-Jewish measures: removing all Jews from the councils' air-raid defence services. Soon to be followed by the decree that Jews could no longer be engaged in public functions. In October 1940 the Germans introduced the Declaration of Aryan Origin in which a definite distinction was made between Jews and non-Jews. On 22 November 1941 Seyss-Inquart, the 'Rijkscommissaris' (National Commissioner) appointed by Hitler, went one step further by discharging all Jews in public functions. In Delft and Leiden thousands of students launched protestcampaigns. The German 'Sicherheitsdienst' (Security Service) occupied the Leiden University and the Delft Polytechnic. They opposed longer working-hours. Unemployment Relief workers demonstrated in Amsterdam and demanded a raise of their benefits. When the Germans wanted to force metalworkers in shipyards to work in Germany, they had another protestcampaign on their hands.

Towards the end of 1940 and early in 1941 a tightened anti-Semitism became apparent. The owners of hotels and pubs were forced to put up posters with the text Jews not wanted. On Rembrandtsquare there was fierce fighting in the Heck-restaurant. The anti-Jewish measures grew more and more sinister. Seyss-Inquart ordered all persons wholly or partially of Jewish blood to come forward for registration (and pay for that registration themselves). This compulsory registration would later prove disastrous when the time of the deportations came. It became customary for WA-troops to enter Jewish neighbourhoods and provoke fights. Marketstalls were destroyed, windows smashed and Jews maltreated. On Sunday 9 February 1941, again on the Rembrandtsquare, not far from the Jewish quarter, heavy fighting broke out. Young boys offered resistance and clashed with the Germans. The two following days defence troops were standing by; on 11 February a battle took place with the WA on Waterloo Square. WA-member Koot got heavily wounded and died some days later. Very early on 12 February the Germans closed off the old Jewish quarter.