History of Sorts

The right to education is one of the most fundamental human rights. In August 1941 the Nazis passed a law to set up schools for Jewish students and teachers only in the Netherlands.

The picture above is of Jewish students of the school on Cliffordstraat, Amsterdam West. A class of 10 students, with teacher Goubitz.The municipality opened one school for these very scattered children, in the Staatsliedenbuurt, on Cliffordstraat at number 36, in a school building that was no longer in use. It was quite eccentric to the other western neighbourhoods of the city.

At the end of September 1941, when that Jewish school No. 14 opened, only 56 children showed up. The Education Department had probably assumed a larger turnout, three classes had been formed with two teachers plus the head Mozes Goubitz, who came from the Corantijnschool near the Surinameplein.

Given the enormous distances some children would have…