Making life difficult for Jews.

Approximately 105,000 OF THE 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands were murdered during the Holocaust. The attempt to erase the Jews from the country did not happen overnight ,it was a gradual process.

Every few weeks new measures were introduced to make the life for the Dutch Jews as hard as possible. Some of these measures appeared to be quite subtle and non malicious , like the handing in of bicycles.

In June 1942 the Jews in Utrecht were required to hand in their bikes, the language used in this announcement(picture above) was important because for a bystander it looks quite harmless, they could assume that the Jews were not forced to give up their bikes, but were requested in a friendly manner to comply to the announcement. The line in the middle of the poster(in bold letters) states “The opportunity to handing in bicycles exists at the cleansing post Groeneweg”

This was a clear indication that the bikes were going to be cleaned first before they were sold on or just confiscated by the Nazi regime, and I say Nazi regime and not Germans because it was the Dutch civil servants in charge of this.

Boycotting or banning Jews was also something that gradually sneaked into general society.

No Jews allowed in the local butcher shop

No Jews allowed in the park.

Restrictions of movement for Jews in Slenaken

Thankfully there were some organisations who actively rallied  for boycotting businesses and leisure centres  who banned Jewish fellow citizens from their premises or shops.

They urged workers to stop working for each new outburst of  anti Jewish bestiality.

 

Source

NIOD