A photograph like the one above is nearly as disturbing to me as an image of piles of dead bodies. It is not the image but the knowledge of what happened to most—if not all—of the people in the picture.
The majority looking into the camera lens were young, healthy people, still in the prime of their lives.
It is a photo of pupils and teachers of the Jewish Lyceum in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, taken in July 1942.
On August 16, 1941, the Nazis ordered that all schools in the Netherlands had to submit a list of the names of the Jewish students, and then the parents were informed their children were no longer welcome in the new school year. The situation at the Sint-Janslyceum was striking. On September 11, 1941, Rector J. Bauwens wrote to the secretary of OMO in Tilburg, “I hereby inform you that no Jewish students are enrolled or have been registered for the Sint-Janslyceum.” According to data from the Department of Education in The Hague, the Lyceum had four Jewish students.
In the Netherlands, there had been little opposition to the expulsion of Jewish students, and nine Jewish secondary schools were established—across the country. All children from the area (Bommelerwaard, Eindhoven, Tilburg, Breda, and Oss) found accommodation at the Joodsch Lyceum in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. The school had only been in operation for a few months. Classes were suspended in January and February of 1942 because of coal scarcity and the constant cold. In April 1943, all students and teachers in Dutch camps were locked up, deported, or went into hiding. As a result, the school formally ceased to exist.
The Nazis were responsible for 75% of all Dutch Jews murdered during the Holocaust. It is, therefore, safe to presume that the majority of these children and their teachers from the Lyceum were victims.
Sources
History of Sorts 
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