The minute I entered I realized something terrible had
happened. The stage was stripped of its decors and looked as if a
robber had made off with all its contents. Ropes swung from the
electricians' lighting bridge, reminiscent of a hangman's noose.
The paintings and sculptures were gone. The seats in the orchestra
pit and the auditorium had been wrenched from the floor and stacked
against the walls. All the lighting was dimmed, except for the
emergency bulbs that glowed like blood-red fireflies.
From: Grohs-Martin, Silvia and Carla Benink, Silvie, Amsterdam,
2001
This is the memory of Silvia Grohs as she thinks back to her
arrival in the Hollandsche Schouwburg in early August 1942, after
the Nazis had ordered the building to be used as assembly place for
Jews waiting to be deported. Silvia Grohs had performed for quite
some time in the theatre, also after- under Nazi threat - it had to
change its name to Joodsche Schouwburg (Jewish Theatre).
She and her fellow artistes were given an impossible choice: either
help to organize the large numbers of Jewish prisoners arriving and
leaving the Hollandsche Schouwburg; or else be sent immediately on
transport. The newly appointed head of Jewish staff at the theatre
was
Walter Süskind.
The Hollandsche Schouwburg had a double function as assembly point.
It was both the place to register for immediate deportation and
also a prison where Jews were kept for longer periods. In uniting
these two functions in one building - a former theatre on a busy
boulevard in the heart of Amsterdam, in a neighbourhood with plenty
of non-Jewish residents - the Nazis testified to a cocksure
arrogance that assisted them in carrying out their murderous
plans.
At an earlier date the acting head of the Central bureau for Jewish
emigration ( Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung )
Ferdinand Aus der Fünten, had made investigations to find
suitable locations where large numbers of Jews could be held
prisoner awaiting deportation. The Portuguese Israelite Synagogue
on Jonas Daniel Meijer Square didn't seem a suitable building
because its large lofty windows would be difficult to black out.
The blackout had become compulsory so that buildings could not be
seen at night, in connection with Allied bomb attacks. But the
Hollandsche Schouwburg at the edge of the Jewish quarter, with its
spacious window-free auditorium was, the Nazis felt, just the
place.
In fact, the Hollandsche Schouwburg was not at all suitable to hold
large numbers of people over a long period. One of the child carers
from the nearby nursery, who
regularly went to the Hollandsche Schouwburg, compared it to the
city of ' Naples when it was overrun by plague. An ever-present
stench coming from far too many terrified people crowded together
in too little space. Far and away most of the prisoners just sat in
the auditorium, on the stairs, in the balconies and theatre boxes.
Some paced up and down through the theatre. What had once been a
theatre restaurant was now equipped as a hospital ward, for those
requiring medical attention. Meals were dished up by members of the
Jewish Council.
On 25 March 1943 Willy Alexander, a Jew, wrote in his wartime
diary, There are at present 1,300 people in that little
'Hollandse Schouwburg'. It gets so hot and oppressive (and of
course smelly) that everyone just begs for drink after drink. Only
the old women are permitted to sleep on mattresses- others just
occasionally. For all these 1,300 people there are just two men's
toilets and three women's toilets, and one or two washbasins.
Inside the auditorium the people going to Westerbork are waiting
and upstairs are those to be sent to Vught. But it all seems to be
so haphazard that it depends on the mood of the gentlemen in power
whether you go to Vught or Westerbork. On a couple of occasions
something didn't quite suit a.d.F [ed. Aus der Fünten] and then
just like that half the theatre-full was sent to Westerbork.'
In the Umschlagplatz (Assembly Place) Plantage
Middenlaan , as the German occupiers sometimes called the
Hollandsche Schouwburg, everyone was registered upon arrival. The
prisoners were brought there after an official summon or a round-up
razzia. Round-ups were held increasingly after September 1942
as a means of hunting down Jews. Once arrived, for many the long
wait began in the theatre. It could last hours, days or even weeks.
Many prisoners in the Hollandsche Schouwburg made frantic efforts
to secure their release with the help of people working for the
Jewish Council. Some of them attempted to escape. Usually these
efforts ended in failure.
Not only Amsterdam Jews, also those from the provinces were
imprisoned in the Hollandsche Schouwburg. Some of the prisoners had
a stamp in their Identity Card granting them temporary
exemption from deportation; there were adults, children and
non-Dutch Jews. The latter had fled to the Netherlands before 1940,
mainly from Germany and Austria. Now they were once more ensnared
by the Nazis. After October 1942 the Germans decreed that the
nursery across the street from the theatre should be an annexe of
the Hollandsche Schouwburg. Children up to the age of twelve,
separated from their parents, had to wait there to be
deported.
The Hollandsche Schouwburg was guarded by German
SS-troops assisted by members of the Dutch Nazi Party, the NSB
Dutch collaborators. who had been detailed in 1943 to track
down Jews in hiding were also involved in the theatre's security.
The Dutch NSB members would generally deliver to the theatre the
Jews they had hunted down. Prisoners weren't allowed to speak to
the prison guards. If they had any questions, they were to address
them to the Jewish Council.
Willy Alexander's wartime diary describes the experience of
Jewish prisoners. There was an appalling atmosphere in the
place, also the Germans wore your nerves to shreds. You would be on
each list for transport to Westerbork or Vught that set off during
those sixteen days, but then each time you would be spared -
züruck gestellt - just in the nick of time.
Sometimes there would be a transport from the theatre three
times a week. The Jews were herded into trams, trucks or buses and
driven to the trains that stood waiting for them at Muiderpoort
Station or Amsterdam's Central Station. Sometimes groups of
prisoners were marched to Muiderpoort Station, under armed guard.
The Hollandsche Schouwburg was their final address in Amsterdam;
most of the Jews were deported to the transit camp at Westerbork.
After 16 January 1943 young Jewish prisoners in particular were
deported from the theatre to the Dutch Camp Vught
Jews were sent to 'the East' from both these camps.
After 29 September 1943, when the Jewish Council was dissolved,
there were officially no more Jews in the Netherlands. All Jews had
been deported to camps, excepting a
group of Jews of mixed marriage. These Jews had married a non-Jew.
Besides this, there were Jews who had gone 'underground' and tried
to escape persecution by going into hiding. If they were discovered
at their 'underground' address they were arrested and taken to the
Hollandsche Schouwburg. The theatre was closed as a place of
deportation after the final transport had taken place on Friday 19
November 1943. The transports from Amsterdam that took place after
that date were from one of the city prisons, on
Amstelveenseweg.