‘Zelfs U kunt het niemand kwalijk nemen, wanneer hij vergeet U te bedanken’

De Joodse Raad en de medewerking aan de deportatie van Joden in Nederland

Samenvatting

In February 1941, the Nazis appointed a Jewish Council for the city of Amsterdam. One of its most controversial departments (Afdeling Hulp aan Vertrekkenden) gave assistance to Jews who were selected for deportation to concentration camps and who were preparing for their departure. This article looks at the activities and motivations of the employees and workers of this department. With what kind of tasks did they occupy themselves, what was the importance of their work according to them, and why did they think so? In theory, the department described its tasks as only helping as efficiently as possible to prepare the Jews for their deportation to the camps. In practice, though, the workers of this department were almost neurotically concerned with offering protection to the property which deportees had left at home. Therefore this article argues that the department tried to preserve something of the Jewish dignity in spite of the cruelties the Jews were surrounded with.