Background

The Hollandsche Schouwburg building at the Plantage Middenlaan is an emotionally loaded site in Amsterdam that recalls the mass murder of Jews. During World War II, the German occupiers used this former theatre to imprison Jewish Amsterdammers. From here, tens of thousands of women and men were deported to concentration and extermination camps via transit camp Westerbork in Drenthe.

At the beginning of the war, the building is used as a theatre. Soon, the German authorities determine that only Jews are allowed to attend performances in this theatre building. The name is changed to Joodsche Schouwburg. With the rapid increase of anti-Jewish measures in 1941 and 1942, the performances stop. From 20 July 1942, the building takes on its ominous purpose. Jews are gathered here to be deported to camp Westerbork. They must report to the theatre after being summoned by post, but it is also a place where the Jewish people who have been rounded up in raids are brought. Typically, the building contains as many as three or four hundred people per day. If major raids take place, this number can rise to as many as 1,400 people. They stay for hours, days or sometimes even weeks. The rooms are not at all suitable for accommodating large groups of people for long periods of time. Most people sit in the main hall, on the stairs, balconies and in the theatre’s boxes. Sometimes it is possible for people to go outside in the courtyard behind the building for a while. Anxiety levels are very high, and the uncertainty of what lies ahead feels strangling.

Young children are temporarily housed in the Jewish Crèche on the other side of the Plantage Middenlaan. With staff help, resistance fighters manage to smuggle children unseen out of the building. Babies are hidden in large bags, and other children flee through the gardens of the adjacent school. They are taken to a safe place somewhere in the country. About six hundred children survive the war this way. But most of the children are not rescued. They are reunited with their parents the moment they are transported from the theatre. Depending on the availability of trains, transports sometimes take place up to three times a week. Trams, trucks or buses transport victims to trains waiting at Amsterdam Central Station or Muiderpoort station. Occasionally, groups of prisoners walk under guard to Muiderpoort station. This usually happens at night so that few of their fellow citizens can see.

The Hollandsche Schouwburg is the last stopping place of the Jewish victims in Amsterdam. From Muiderpoort and Centraal stations, they are transferred to Westerbork. From 16 January 1943, mostly young Jewish prisoners from the Hollandsche Schouwburg are also taken to the Vught concentration camp in Brabant. Deportation to death camps in Poland follows after these camps.

As of 29 September 1943, according to the occupying forces, there are officially no more Jews in the Netherlands. All have been deported. However, the Germans realise that there were Jews in hiding throughout the Netherlands. When discovered in Amsterdam, they continue to be taken to the Schouwburg. Eventually, the building is closed after the last major transport of Jews from the capital on Friday 19 November 1943.

Since the 1960s, a commemorative gathering organised by the Jewish Cultural Quarter, local residents and pupils of the IVKO school, has been held every 4 May in the Hollandsche Schouwburg, located opposite the Schouwburg. It acts as a reminder that for 16 months, from 20 July 1942 to 19 November 1943, the theatre served as a gathering place from where over 46,000 were deported. Most of them were murdered by Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Germany.