De Dokwerker - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Posted by: 
naj16
N 52° 22.031 E 004° 54.307
31U E 629708 N 5803586
During the February strike in 1941, Dutch workers protested against the arrest of Jews. The Dock Worker Monument, which is located in the old Jewish quarter, commemorates this event.
Waymark Code: WMJDHJ
Location: Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Date Posted: 11/04/2013
Views: 9
On May 10, 1940, the German Wehrmacht invaded the Netherlands. After a short campaign, they occupied the country. Despite the Germans' efforts to win over the local population, the new regime was met with little enthusiasm; especially the anti-Jewish measures they introduced caused widespread discontent. When Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler demanded reprisal measures for actions supposedly committed by Jewish resistance fighters in the Netherlands, the German order police organised an anti-Jewish raid in Amsterdam. On the night of February 22/23, 1941, the police arrested hundreds of Jewish men and rounded them up on a square in the Jewish quarter. 427 of them were taken to the Schoorl police transit camp, from where they were first deported to the Buchenwald, and later to the Mauthausen concentration camp.
The Germans' brutal conduct shocked many in the Netherlands. The underground communist party called for a general strike. On February 25 and 26, workers in Amsterdam and in a few other cities went on strike. The strike was suppressed by the occupying forces, during which nine people died and hundreds were arrested. The Dutch municipal administration had to pay a high financial penalty to the occupiers. The general strike led to an aggravation of the situation in the Netherlands: the occupation authorities were from now on much tougher on the Dutch population. Nevertheless, the February strike was an unprecedented expression of protest against the National Socialist regime in occupied Europe and remained a symbol of Dutch resistance after the war.
Only one of the 427 arrested and deported Jewish men survived the concentration camp. Nine people were killed in the course of the suppression of the February strike, hundreds were arrested.
The first commemorative ceremonies in honour of the February strike took place in 1946. On December 19, 1952, the Dock Worker Monument by artist Mari Andriessen was unveiled. It is located on Jonas Daniël Meijerplein, the square on which the German order police rounded up the arrested Jews in February 1941. The statue depicts a simple dock worker as a symbol of the indignation and resistance of the Dutch population in the face of the persecution of Jews. A remembrance ceremony is held annually on February 25.
source: memorialmuseums.org
Date of Dedication: 12/19/1952
Property Permission: Public
Access instructions: Jonas Daniël Meijerplein 2-4
Website for Waymark: [Web Link]
Location of waymark:
Jonas Daniël Meijerplein 2-4
Amsterdam,
1011RH
Commemoration: Persecuted Netherlands, Dutch Resistance
Access times: Not listed
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