May 1940. The Netherlands are attacked by Germany. About 140,000 Jews live there. The majority of them are Dutch citizens, approximately 15,000 of them are German refugees. They believed that they were out of danger. They hadn’t.

The First Chains
Nazi started with no guns. They began with rules.
Jews were ejected out of government employment.
They were deprived of their businesses.
Next came the registration--names entered, lists on which would later depend the decision who was to be sent away.
Life narrowed down on them day by day.
The Deportations 🚂
Summer 1942: the trains begin. Westerbork. Vught. Then Auschwitz, Sobibor. Families smashed into cattle cars, transported east.
Even German records by February 1944 were admitting the figure--98,000 Jews already deported.
Yes, there were even attempts of the Dutch citizens to fight back. Even church leaders came out. But it didn’t matter. The Nazi machine continued running.
The End of a Community
By September 1944, 107,000 Jews were gone.
Only, approximately 5000 returned alive after the war.
The Netherlands had three quarters of the Jews wiped out. The entire community was not ruined in one attack but bit by bit, until practically nothing was left.
At what point did Hitler realise the war against the Allies was lost during World War ll?
There is a story , that just might be true and is quite telling about that moment. During the allied bombing campaign of Germany.
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