In a poignant speech delivered at a Holocaust commemoration event, Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema issued an apology for the city’s complicity in the horrific persecution of its Jewish residents during the Holocaust. The address, made on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, marked a significant moment of reckoning, as the mayor candidly noted the city’s past failures, stating, “Amsterdam’s government was, when it mattered, not heroic, not determined, and not merciful.”
With her heartfelt apology, Halsema reflected on the plight of Amsterdam's once-thriving Jewish community, which numbered around 80,000 prior to the Nazi occupation. Tragically, more than 60,000 of these residents were deported and ultimately killed under the regime. In a historical context, Halsema underscored that antisemitism was not solely imported from the German occupiers, nor did it vanish after the nation's liberation.
The mayor’s address took place at the Hollandsche Schouwburg, a theater repurposed by the Nazis as a deportation center. “Administrators and officials were not only cold and formalistic, but even willing to cooperate with the occupier,” she stated, highlighting the local government’s role in enabling the systematic abandonment, isolation, and eventual extermination of the Jewish population.
She denounced the collaboration between municipal officials and Nazi authorities, noting that Amsterdam's city government actively mapped out the Jewish communities and that local police assisted in the deportations. Halsema’s frank acknowledgment of the city’s historical shortcomings reflects a broader commitment to remembering the past as a step towards combating ongoing antisemitism in contemporary society.
