Women of the Holocaust – The Netherlands

Nils H. Roemer, Director, Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies
Katie Fisher Research Assistant, Belofsky Fellow
Piyush Kamdar, MS Information Sciences

The Nazis invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. After just a few days of conflict, the Dutch government surrendered to the Third Reich. There was a brief period of relative calm when it looked as though the Third Reich would not impose their anti-Semitic practices on the Dutch. The reprieve did not last, however, as major deportation and killing efforts began in 1942 and ramped up in 1943.

For more resources on the invasion of the Netherlands, see the Anne Frank House.

This dashboard shows visualizations of records kept by the Reich which tracked women who were either born in the Netherlands or resided there at the time of their deportation. These records were digitized and made available by Yad Vashem. Only records of women with known birth and death dates are included in this study. Through the use of new technology to look at familiar histories, we can begin to draw out new insights and gain a greater understanding of effects of the far-reaching and multicontinental genocidal event of the Holocaust.

Reducing the data to focus exclusively on women reveals a few trends. Across all groups, Dutch citizens and non-citizens, women of childbearing age (20-40) were targeted in greater numbers than women of non-childbearing age. The expressed goal of the Third Reich was to remove all Jews from Europe. To that end, murdering women who could produce more Jewish children remained the top priority. This trend is particularly apparent on the “Born” page of this report. In 1942, women ages 60-80 were less likely to be deported than women ages 20-40 and 40-60. Deportation of the older age groups increased significantly between 1942 and 1943. This trend continues into the report page focused on “Residents but not Born” as women ages 40-60 increased between 1942 and 1943—outnumbering women ages 20-40.

The Reich targeted female children in a similar way to women of childbearing age. In 1942 it was more likely for girls ages 0-20 to experience deportation and death than women ages 60-80. This pattern remains consistent throughout the “residents”, “born”, and “both” categories of this report.

It is important to remember that each number included in these charts are individuals with their own stories. Each of these women, their names, and available details can be seen on the “Woman Included in this Study” page of the report. Sara Kloot Roodveldt and her four-year-old daughter, Klaartje Roodveldt, are both included in this study. Through cross-referencing her information with other archives, such as the Amsterdam City Archives, a fuller picture of her life and experience comes into view.