Neighbors in the Netherlands: The Holocaust and the Dutch Town of Hilversum

Abstract

In this article the author explores how intimacy and familiarity played into the history of the Holocaust in the Netherlands. The two concepts are key to research on the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, yet are largely disregarded when it comes to the Holocaust in the Netherlands. Our general perception of the Holocaust in the Netherlands is that of a well-organized, top-down policy: a gradual, bloodless procedure that ended in an anonymous, collective death in the camps of “the East”—the exact opposite of an intimate history of a local community. Using the concept of social death as a frame of analysis, this article investigates the developments in the town of Hilversum during the first two and a half years of the German occupation. In this period, the marginalization and expulsion of the 2,461 Jews in town began. What is immediately striking is the German absence from this story. The initiators of anti-Jewish agitation were local Nazis, and the first restrictions on free movement were issued by the town's mayor. Both actions evoked individual and collective disapproval from fellow citizens. This disapproval underlines the rootedness of Jews in Hilversum, and slowed down the process of their “social death.” It also illustrates the communal character of the Holocaust in this early phase; it touched the broader community of the Dutch town. Thus, this close-up perspective on the Holocaust in a Dutch town reveals how it should be understood as a communal and intimate history. Violence in Hilversum during the Holocaust differed markedly from violence in most towns in Nazi-ruled Eastern Europe; however, in its communal and intimate character there are more similarities between the two geographical stages than one would expect.