[4.15. Jewish haven
Holland was not only a good haven
1933-1938]
[The first refugee wave - Mrs.
Gertrude van Tijn - partly return to the Third Reich in 1936]
One of the major havens for refugees in Europe was Holland, with
Belgium not far behind in importance. Holland had no visa requirements
for entrants from Germany, and it was therefore quite easy to escape to
the friendly republic to the west.
In March 1933 an ad hoc refugee committee was first created there under
the auspices of David Cohen, a professor at the University of
Amsterdam, who was active in Jewish causes. After the April 1 boycott
in Germany, the stream of refugees increased considerably, and
Professor Cohen and his collaborators asked Mrs. Gertrude van Tijn, a
social worker of independent means who was herself of German Jewish
birth, to take over the refugee work.
[1933: Committee for Jewish
Refugees set up - economic crisis and unemployment - the committee
advises the Jews back to the Third Reich]
A Committee for Jewish Refugees was set up, and fund-raising machinery
was created. In 1933 some 3,682 refugees arrived in Holland,
(End note 76:
-- R19. For statistical material on Holland, see also:
-- JDC report for 1934, and:
-- JDC report for 1933 and the first months of 1934,
both in the JDC Library. Also: R16, monthly bulletin nos. 1 & 2,
3/6/35 [6 March 1935])
and they were helped to either integrate into the Dutch economy or
emigrate. For this latter undertaking another committee was set up, in
which Mrs. van Tijn also occupied a central role. As in France, there
was never enough money, and when there was little chance of either
emigration or absorption into the Dutch economy - there were 451,000
unemployed in Holland in 1936 out of a population of 8,000,000 - the
committee could only advise the refugees to return to Germany.
[because in Hitler Germany the unemployment was going down massively
and chances for work were better there].
In 1933, 615 are said to have returned; by 1934 the total number of
returnees was between 1,200 and 1,500. This was about a fourth of the
total number. The rest were either absorbed in Holland or emigrated
(5,500 in 1933 and 1934).
[1934: Mrs. van Tijn announces the liquidation of the Dutch
Jewish Relief Committees]
With the relative abatement of anti-Semitic persecution in Germany in
1934, it seemed that the emergency might soon be over. Mrs. van Tijn,
in a memorandum entitled "Liquidation of Dutch Jewish Relief
Committees", wrote that soon the whole problem would be solved. She was
not expecting much more help from JDC, and consequently did not know
what to do with the refugees that still remained. "As we have from the
beginning always repatriated as many people as possible (in all nearly
900), it will not be an easy matter to send back many people now. In
some cases the alternative (p.170)
of stopping relief money is being adopted."
(End note 77: 30-Germany, refugees 1934/5, van Tijn memo, 7/22/34 [22
July 1934])
[Removal of German Jewish refugees
- and of "old" non-German Jewish immigrants from before 1933, too]
The Dutch government was also anxious to remove these refugees from the
Dutch cities, and Kahn reported in August 1934 that even non-German
Jewish refugees who had come to Holland and Belgium prior to 1933 were
being repatriated. 2,000 such "old" immigrants were being threatened
with expulsion by the Dutch.
(End note 78: Ibid. [30-Germany, refugees 1934/5, van Tijn memo,
7/22/34 [22 July 1934]; Kahn report, 8/22/34 [22 August 1934])
The relations between the Dutch committee and Kahn in Paris were
excellent; in retrospect it appears that Mrs. van Tijn thought they
were more rosy than they actually were.
(End note 79: Oral testimony (H) of Mrs. van Tijn (1968). Cf. also Mrs.
van Tijn's memoirs (manuscript), p.8; thanks are hereby expressed for
permission to use this valuable source).
[JDC pays for Dutch committees]
The committee repeatedly threatened to close its doors because the
means put at its disposal by local Dutch Jewry and by JDC and other
bodies simply were not in proportion to the needs. At the last moment
it was always JDC that provided the needed sums; Kahn was very partial
to Mrs. van Tijn's powerful personality, accurate bookkeeping, and
German Jewish background, and in New York these sentiments were echoed
as well.
(End note 80: Germany, organizations and institutions, "C"-Holland,
letter to Kahn, 1/7/34 [7 January 1934]. Executive Committee, 3/26/35
[26 March 1935], where Jonah B. Wise declared that the Dutch
Committee "needs assistance and should get it. They work efficiently
and constructively." See also: R14, Kahn's report for 1935, in January
1936; and sources in note 79 above).
[Rising number of Jewish refugees
after Nuremberg laws 1935 and after occupation of Austria and CSR -
Holland makes border crossing difficult]
By the end of 1934 some 9,000 Jewish refugees had arrived in Holland.
There seems to have been a marked decrease in 1935, but after the
Nuremberg laws in the autumn the movement increased again. In 1936,
especially toward the end of the year, an estimated 600 people were
coming in monthly. Of these, many found a solution to their problems by
themselves; but over 1,000 people were dependent on the committee, and
361 had to be supported by it.
In 1937 another decrease in
the flow of refugees made the local committee believe that its task
might soon be over. But 1938, with its multiple disasters in Austria
and Czechoslovakia, caused the flow of refugees to increase again.
Dutch restrictions on the entry of Jews from Germany grew, and
border-crossing became very
Table
10
JDC Expenditures in Holland
1933-1939
|
Year
|
1933
|
1934
|
1935
|
1936
|
1937
|
1938
|
1939
|
$ spent
|
41,269
|
88,160
|
49,690
|
120,037
|
118,905
|
128,248
|
439,000
|
(End
note 81: Sources:
-- 34-Germany, refugees in Holland, 1941/2;
-- Holland-report 1936.
It appears that these
figures included a part of HICEM expenditures in Holland, because JDC
contributed to HICEM expenses. Between 1933 and 1936 the total
expenditure of the Dutch Committee came to 1,690,537 Dutch guilders, of
which JDC's direct contribution came to 334,677, or 20 %. HICEM's
expenses came to 189,608, and CBF [Central British Fund for German
Jewry] contributed 57,040; the rest was
covered by money raised from Dutch Jewry).
|
(p. 171)
difficult. All told, probably at least 30,000 Jewish refugees entered
Holland from Germany between 1933 and 1940.
(End note 82: 31-Refugees, 1939/42; for other figures quoted in the
text, see: Executive Committee, 11/24/36, and sources for Table 10).
