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The Netherlands In the Netherlands the discussion about collaboration was at first connected with the question of the participation in the genocide. The memory of the persecution of the Jews was most strongly influenced by a (history) book by Jacques Presser. The first edition was sold out within four days. Presser's explicit decision "to speak for those (…) who are damned to eternal silence" makes his monograph a commemoration as well. |
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At the same time the book is an indictment of the Jewish Council, but also of the indifferent attitude of the Dutch authorities and the cold reception given to the surviving Jews when they returned from the underground and the concentration camps. Presser's "Ondergang" (1965, published in English as "Ashes in the Wind") established in the Netherlands "an almost collective consciousness of at least passive guilt" and marked a shift in the discussion about collaboration and passivity since the War. Absolved of blame after the War, the Dutch people and their authorities were now named by Presser as partially responsible. |
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Around 1995, fifty years after the War, the memory of the deportation and annihilation of the Jews became topical again. Innumerable publications appeared. A photograph that achieved the status of an icon shows emaciated Jewish men who have just crossed the Dutch border on their way home. They were received coolly in the Netherlands by both official and private persons, sometimes even hostilely, as is underscored by the title of the book. |
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