Amsterdam repays families of Jews fined over rent in Holocaust

City told Jews, some of whom escaped concentration camps, to pay rent on houses confiscated by Nazis

Amsterdam will refund relatives of hundreds of Jews who were fined for being late with their rent during their incarceration in second world war concentration camps, city officials said.

“The descendants of the families can ask to be reimbursed for the fines imposed for late rental payments during World War II, which were unfairly collected,” said a statement on Friday.

The issue came to light in April 2013 when a student published archive documents in which Jews who escaped from the concentration camps were billed for arrears on properties belonging to the city of Amsterdam.

The city even imposed fines for late rents on houses that had been confiscated by the Nazis and occupied by Germans or members of the Dutch National Socialist Movement, the NSB. Some of the homes had even been destroyed in the German bombing campaign.

Amsterdam was occupied by the Nazi regime from 1940-1945, during which time 80,000 Jews were rounded up and deported to death camps. Only 18,000 survived.

A study by the Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide found that 240 camp survivors had been forced to pay such fines on their arrears when they returned to Amsterdam. The average sum to be reimbursed is about €1,800 (£1,320).

In a separate case, the owners of about 900 bank accounts belonging to war victims have now been identified.

The owners – relatives of Jews persecuted by the Nazis and the NSB – can now ask for the sums in the accounts to be handed over to them. The average amount in the accounts is €58.

A special website has been set up to trace the relatives, as many are difficult to find. But even decades ago, some survivors and city tenants were unhappy with Amsterdam’s request for back-payments.

JW Levending, a carpenter and businessman, angrily wrote to the local authorities on 29 June 1946 protesting at the move.

“Is it for us to pay for the broken pots? Those who during the past years have lived in misery, locked away, and from whom the Germans took everything?

“We received a bill which should have been paid by the men of the NSB and fines as well, when we weren’t even there. 

“The local bureaucrats must really not know what has been going on, if they dared to demand the payment of such debts?”

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