The earliest documented presence of Jews in the Netherlands dates from the 12th century. By the mid 1500's, this middle age community was expelled or destroyed. In the late 1500's, Portuguese Marranos (Jews forcibly converted to Christianity who remained secret Jews) and descendants of Portuguese Marranos living in Belgium and Italy began to settle in the Netherlands and practiced Judaism openly. Ashkenazic Jews began to arrive in the early 1600's, first from Germany and then from Poland and Lithuania. By and large, Jews enjoyed tolerance and security in the Netherlands, and after the founding of the Batavian Republic in 1795, Jews were granted complete emancipation. The following table from the Encyclopedia Judaica shows the population growth from 1780.
|
Year |
Ashkenazic |
Sephardic |
Total |
|
1780 |
27,000 |
3,000 |
30,000 |
| 1810 |
50,000 |
3,000 |
53,000 |
| 1830 |
46,000 | ||
| 1849 |
55,412 |
3,214 |
58,626 |
| 1869 |
64,478 |
3,525 |
68,000 |
| 1889 |
78,075 |
5,070 |
83,145 |
| 1909 |
99,875 |
6,624 |
106,049 |
| 1930 |
106,723 |
5,194 | 111,917 |
| 1941 | 139,687 | ||
| 1954 |
23,723 |
At the time of the German occupation in May,1940, the Jewish population was about 140,000, or 1.6 of the total population of the Netherlands. Anti-Jewish measures began in September. In 1941, a Jewish Council was established by the Nazis (Joodse Raad) to coordinate all Jewish affairs. The first efforts of the Germans were aimed at separating the Jews from the general population. Next came the plundering of Jewish property. Well over $100,000,000 of assets were extracted through various methods. Then came deportations. It is estimated that 107,000 Dutch Jews were deported, of which only 5,200 (4.8) survived.
At the end of 1994, the Jewish population was estimated at between 25,000 and 30,000.
Encyclopedia Judaica, CD-Rom Edition, Keter Publishing
Gutman, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, P. 1045-1057