Twelve thousand Victims

Before the Second World War, about twelve thousand Jews lived in Rotterdam. About seven hundred fifty survived by going into hiding; about one thousand Jews returned
from the camps. The remainder has been deported via “Loods 24” (Warehouse 24), the collecting point on the grounds of the “Gemeentelijke Handelsinrichtingen” (Municipal Trading Installations) at the Stieltjesstraat. Loods 24 was also the place where Jews from the South Holland Islands had to report. An estimated two thousand persons from there were ordered to join those already assembled in Loods 24. Thus, more then twelve thousand people from Rotterdam and surroundings were murdered by the German occupier. Only because they were Jews….

Due to the bombardment in May, 1940, many Rotterdam Jews lost their homes. A large number, and certainly the poorest, were living in the centre of old Rotterdam: Helmersstraat and Ammanstraat and this neighbourhood was totally levelled during the bombardment and the subsequent fire. The Germans began their deportations on July 30, 1942. A few days earlier, two Thousand Jews received summons to report for “provision of additional labour in Germany under police supervision”.

The address: Loods 24 at the Entrepotstraat.

Eleven hundred and twenty fully packed persons reported at Loods 24. Many others stayed home or went into hiding. A second call-up, in August, yielded eight hundred Jews and the third only five hundred and twenty.
In September, 1942, the Germans went one step further. A transport was assembled of Rotterdam Jews of German and Eastern European origin. At the end of October, 1942, the Germans started to fetch the people from their homes. On February 26, 1943, they emptied the Jewish Orphanage, Home for the Aged and Hospital. On that day, 269 people – the sick, the old and the babies…. – were deported to Westerbork.
Only Portuguese Jews and mixed-marrieds remained in Rotterdam. The Portuguese Jews had to leave in the summer of 1943.

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