© Beeldbank WO2 / Verzetsmuseum Amsterdam
Jewish employees from the Hollandia Factory on Kattenburg are deported
Of the 740 employees working at Hollandia-Kattenburg clothing factory, 367 are Jewish. In the first few years of the war these employees and their families are exempt from deportation because the factory makes uniforms for the Wehrmacht.
Commissioner General and member of the SS Hanns Rauter is not happy with this. On 11 November 1942 there is a raid on the factory by the Grüne Polizei. All the Jewish employees are arrested. Their families are picked up from their homes. They are all deported via Camp Westerbork on the so-called ‘Hollandia-Kattenburg transport’ to German concentration camps. Only 8 return after the war.
The clothing factory which specialises in rain coats was started by the Jewish family Kattenburg. This factory has been on the Valkenweg in Amsterdam-Noord since 1917.
The deportations
When the gas chambers in Auschwitz are ready for use in 1942, Jews from all over Europe are sent to this concentration and extermination camp. The Nazis organize this under the guise of ‘emigration’ and ‘employment’ in Eastern Europe. In July they start to assemble Jews in Amsterdam. First they are taken by train to Westerbork in Drenthe then they are sent in crowded cattle and goods cars to concentration camps. More than 100,000 Jews from Amsterdam meet their deaths in this way.
more on this subject
more on this subject