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The extreme dependence on often unknown people was another obstacle, and there were also more practical objections: for example, it would be impossible to continue to observe all the religious rules in a Christian family where Jews could go into hiding.įinally, certainly during the first stage of the deportations it was not generally known that a large proportion of the deported people would be sent to the gas chambers as soon as they arrived at a “labour camp”. In addition, for many people it was unthinkable to be separated from their family members. For many people, entering the world of illegality was entirely against their nature, particularly as the Jewish Council was also against the decision: as it was impossible for everyone to go into hiding, no one should do so. With hindsight this may seem incomprehensible, but at the time the decision was by no means self-evident. In many Jewish families this call led to heated discussions about whether or not to go into hiding.

After identifying and isolating Jews, the occupying forces now started on the phase of deporting them.

The summons on 5 July 1942 for the first thousand Jews to present themselves for “labour in Germany” marked the start of the third phase of the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands. This immediately shows a bit more about what it must have been like “to live a non-life” as a Jewish person in hiding in the Netherlands.

To examine this, we will look at the story of the Secret Annex in the broader perspective of the Jewish people who went into hiding in the Netherlands. There were five dedicated helpers and, certainly at the beginning, there was sufficient financial support. To what extent was Anne Frank’s situation an “ordinary” example of going into hiding? In her case the move had been well prepared, with eight people on two floors, in the centre of a large city, for a long period and in one place. Posthumously, she became the face and voice of Jewish people who went into hiding. “Going into hiding.” When they hear this phrase (in Dutch the term onderduiken literally meaning “diving under”), many people immediately think of one person, Anne Frank, the smart and slightly impertinent teenage girl who hid in a secret annex on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam for more than two long war years.

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