By Worthy News’ Johan Th. Bos and Stefan J. Bos, reporting from the Netherlands

AMSTERDAM (Worthy News) – Femke Halsema has become Amsterdam’s first mayor to formally apologize for her city’s role in the Holocaust.

Femke Halsema spoke Thursday during the annual “Yom HaShoah” (Holocaust Day) remembrance ceremony.

Speaking at the Hollandsche Schouwburg (Dutch Theater), where thousands of Jews were gathered before deportation—Halsema apologized on behalf of Amsterdam.

She recalled that the Dutch capital abandoned its Jewish residents during World War II and delivered them a final insult upon their return. “The Amsterdam authorities were not heroic, not resolute, and not compassionate when it mattered most. The city failed its Jewish residents in the most horrific way,” Halsema said. “On behalf of the municipal government, I sincerely apologize.”

Amsterdam’s postwar motto, “Heroic, Resolute, Compassionate”—granted by Dutch Queen Wilhelmina for the 1941 February Strike in defense of persecuted Jews- “does not reflect the city government’s wartime conduct,” Halsema noted.

While “many” ordinary citizens protested the Nazi occupation, she complained that the city administration’s actions told a different story.

COLD, FORMALISTIC

“The unavoidable conclusion is that the municipality failed morally. Never once did a clear ‘no’ come from city hall,” Halsema said. “City departments were all too willing to help implement anti-Jewish measures, step by step becoming part of the machinery of evil.”

She described city officials and civil servants as “cold and formalistic,” highlighting the role of Amsterdam police in Jewish round-ups, the use of municipal trams to transport Jews to the train station, and the bureaucratic coldness that defined the administration’s complicity.

Those few Jewish residents of Amsterdam who survived Nazi death camps and returned after the war were met not with compassion but with hostility—“and even bills for overdue lease payments,” Halsema recalled.

“Jewish residents who had barely escaped the horrors were not welcomed back by their city but instead kicked while they were down,” she said.

“Amsterdam showed no empathy. It failed to acknowledge what had happened. The narrative became that everyone had resisted, everyone had hidden Jews, and that the Jewish community should be grateful.”

The city is also committing 25 million euros ($28.4 million) to support the future of Jewish life in Amsterdam, while memorial “stumbling stones” will be installed throughout the city.

SOLEMN DUTY

“We cannot undo the past,” Halsema said. “But we have a solemn duty to keep the memory of the Shoah victims alive—as a warning and as a call to confront modern-day antisemitism and all forms of racism.”

Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs welcomed the mayor’s remarks, saying, “I hope other mayors hear this and follow suit.”

While he said the money was not the primary concern, “the recognition that everything went terribly wrong means a lot.” As for whether the apology came too late, Jacobs responded, “Better late than never.”

The Central Jewish Consultative Body (CJO) said, “We feel that these apologies were made to the survivors, their descendants, and to us as a living Jewish community. We trust that the city will continue to support its Jewish residents, who—except for the five years of occupation—have lived in freedom in Mokum [Amsterdam] for centuries.”

Israeli Ambassador Modi Ephraim also spoke at the event, warning of rising antisemitism and referencing the recent opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, which he said was “drowned out by an anti-Jewish crowd” while local authorities “did nothing.”

His remarks drew stronger applause than the mayor’s. “Hatred,” he said, “has once again been normalized.”

AMSTELVEEN TENSE

The tensions came while in Amsterdam’s satellite city of Amstelveen, a Holocaust memorial, which commemorates Jewish residents murdered in Nazi concentration camps, remained incomplete.

New research funded by the municipality revealed around fifty names missing from the monument, which currently lists 166 victims.

Mayor Tjapko Poppens laid a wreath during the ceremony and highlighted the story of Jan van Hulst, a former municipal employee, and local resistance hero, now honored with a park bearing his name. Van Hulst helped numerous Jews find hiding places, managed to remove his wife’s Jewish status, and stood firmly against the Nazi regime. When asked about his actions, he responded, “What else was I supposed to do?”

Speaker David Serphos emphasized that the rise in antisemitism today leaves no room for excuses or “yes, but” narratives. Mayor Poppens echoed this sentiment, pointing to Van Hulst as someone who refused to look away.

David Simon, chairman of the Friends of Yad Vashem Foundation, added that only five percent of Dutch citizens actively resisted—“roughly the same proportion as those who betrayed Jews for 7.50 guilders ($4).

“Ninety percent looked the other way,” he said, “while more than 100,000 Dutch Jews were sent to their deaths,” Simon recalled.

Simon stressed the importance of educating young people: “The Holocaust happened because people looked away. It was the greatest catastrophe ever inflicted on humanity. That’s why we must continue to warn and remember.”

Photo: Johan Th. Bos for Worthy News

Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.

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