On February 25, 1941, Amsterdam was in the grip of a general strike to protest against the persecution of Jews. A day later the strike expanded to the Zaan, Kennemerland (Haarlem and Velsen), Hilversum, Utrecht and Weesp. In Amsterdam the public transport came to a halt and also nearly all other municipal services lay down their work. The shipbuilding and metal companies in North, at Hollandia-Kattenburg, and also in supermarkets as the Bijenkorf were at strike. Throughout the city, shops and offices were closed. Many students left their classrooms. Thousands of people were moving that day through the center of town. Their suppressed mind sought a way to express themselves against the German occupiers who invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940 and more openly wanted to impose their regime.
In the period before February of 1941 the German pressure on the whole political and economical life became more and more brutal. In June 1940 the German occupier started with their first of the many anti-Jews measures by removing all the Jews out of the municipal protection authorities.Soon followed by the measure that Jews were no longer allowed to be adopted in civil service. In October 1940 came the "Ariërverklaring" (Aryan declaration) which made an even more emphasis on a separation between Jews and none Jews.At the end of 1940 the personal certificate became obligatorily.
In preparation for the strike in February a lot more has happened. Amsterdam unemployed performed actions on projects in North Holland in the Gooi and near Amersfoort, where they had been employed. They turned against the extension of the work-time. Labor Workers marched in the capital and demanded increase in their benefits. When the German occupier wanted to force the north Amsterdam shipyards metalworkers to go to work in Germany, then also there protests started.
The end of 1940 and beginning of 1941 outlined themselves a tightened up anti-Semitism. The by Mussert led NSB (the Netherlands acting pro-German fascist movement) and WA (Uniformed troops) wished to manifest itself more emphatically and went about organizing provocations in neighborhoods where many Jewish families lived. Owners of hotels and pubs were forced to hang placards with the words 'Joden niet gewenscht' (Jews not allowed). The anti-Jewish measures became more grim. Seyss-Inquart (by Hitler appointed Reich Commissioner of the Netherlands) declarated that all persons who where "wholly or partly Jewish blood" had to report themselves and had to pay the associated fees. This registration would prove disastrous for the subsequent deportations.
More and more groups of the WA went into Jews neighborhoods and provoked fights. Market stalls were destroyed, shopwindows smashed and Jews beaten. On Sunday, February 9, 1941 it came to a heavy fighting on Rembrandt Square, near the Jewish quarter. Jewish boys resisted and clashed with WA. In the next two days the defending groups kept themself ready, on February 11 on Waterloosquare it came to a real battle with the WA. On February 12, in the early morning, the Germans closed off the old Jewish quarter. On Monday, February 17 emotions became high again on the Dutch Ship Building Company in Amsterdam North, a number of workers who were single were chosen by lotnumber to go to work in Germany. All the workers left the yard and on other yards the workers laid down their work. On Wednesday, February 19 men of the Grüne Polizei stormed the Koco ice cream parlor in the Van Woustraat, which was owned by German Jewish refugees Cahn and Kohn. When they invaded, shoting the owners shot ammonia from a bottle into their face. Both Cahn and Kohn were arrested. In the weekend of February 22 and 23 revenge actions took place in the Jewish neighborhood. Bloodhounds were released on Jewish people. Young Jewish men were taken to the Jonas Daniel Meyer Square and 427 of them, in the age off 18 to 35 years, were taken as hostages. They were taken to Buchenwald and Mauthausen. They died within one year of abuse and deprivation. The manhunt in the Jewish neighborhood aroused strong indignation and was the direct cause of the February strike. In the evening of February 24 on the Noordermarket a short open-air meeting took place which was attended by many municipal workers. The strike parole was announced. That same night, at many addresses in the city the by the illegal CPN made manifest "Strike, strike, strike!!!" was printed. In the early morning hours, this manifest was spread at the gate of numerous companies.
The municipality tram went on strike this morning, followed by other municipal services. The tram disappeared from the cityscape and soon it became clear to many Amsterdam people that there was a strike. From one company after another men and women came on to the street. The strike movement was given its own dimension, there is a growing atmosphere of spontaneous solidarity among the population, relief of rejoicing over the fact that their abhorrence and protest so massive and united showed. All of Amsterdam was in the grip of the February strike. The Germans were stunned. It had never occurred, that their would be a strike against anti-Semitism and Jewish persecution. The occupation authorities took refuge in a series of measures. But they could not prevent that the strike one day later expanded to the Zaan, Kennemerland, Utrecht and other places. The February 1941 strike, as briefly outlined above, entered history as one of the biggest acts of resistance in the struggle against Hitler's fascism.
Each year on February 25 at the monument of the Dock Worker on the Jonas Daniel Meyer Square the 1941 February strike is commemorated.
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