Holocaust-Era Assets

RG 84: The Netherlands

State Department and Foreign Affairs Records

Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State (RG 84)

The Netherlands

On May 10, 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands.  Within days the government headed by Queen Wilhelmina, fled to London and formed a government-in-exile.  On May 14 the Dutch capitulated to the Germans.  The Netherlands became a dependent province of the Third Reich, under Artur Seyss-Inquart who headed the Reichskommissariat Niederlanden, aided by H.A. Rauter, as head of the SS and security police.   After the occupation began customs and financial barriers between the Netherlands and Germany were abolished, leaving the country wide open to German economic and financial penetration.  As in several other occupied countries the Germans used financial manipulations of clearings as an economic weapon.  The German authorities issued special regulations regarding the property of enemy aliens, anti-Nazis, and Jews.  In addition, attempts were made by the Germans to lay hands on any assets in the Netherlands which could be easily realized abroad (holdings of gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, foreign currency, and foreign exchange).  Germans penetrated the Dutch banking system by means of maintaining and expanding interests in many banks, participating in existing Dutch banks, and creating new banking houses.

The Germans penetrated the Dutch insurance industry, an industry that had almost 1,000 insurance companies operating in the country in 1939.  On June 1, 1943, the Germans ordered the termination of all insurance policies contracted by Dutch Jews.

In addition to acquisitions by Germans of minority or majority interests in Dutch industry, the most notable changes in ownership of Dutch property were the confiscations of Jewish properties. On May 12, 1941, the occupation authorities began "Aryanizing" Jewish properties and by a decree of May 21, 1942, almost all Jews property was subject to expropriation.  Earlier that year, forced labor camps for Jews were established and in July 1942, deportation began, continuing through September 1943.  Another roundup and deportation took place early in 1944.  Some 110,000 Dutch Jews were deported to Auschwitz, Sobibor, and to other camps.  It is estimated that 105,000 Dutch Jews, or three-fourth of the estimated pre-Final Solution population, were exterminated, with only 5,000 of the deportees surviving.  Additionally, during the war some 170,000 Dutch became forced-laborers for the Reich.

It was not until May 6, 1945, that the Netherlands was finally liberated. (Note 85)

The Hague Legation and Embassy

     General Records 1936-1940, 1945-1952 (Entry 3011)

          Boxes 1-64
          1945
          Box# File #    File Title or Subject
          34   711.3     Safehaven
               711.3     Looted Property
          35   840.1     Jews
               840.3     Looted Art
          36   851  Assets in the United States
               851  Safehaven project
               851  Treasury, U.S. 
          1946
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          39   711.3     Restitution
               711.3     Looted Art
               711.3     Looted Securities
               711.3     Safehaven
               711.3     Safehaven Declarations 
          41   851  Treasury, U.S.
               851  Unblocking of Assets
               851  Deutsche Revisions und Treuhand
               851  German External Assets
               851  Marcel Wolf  
          1947
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          44   711.3     German External Assets
               711.3     Stinnes 
          46   851  German External Assets
               851  Deutsche Revisions und Treuhand  
          1948
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          49   711.3     Enemy Property
               711.3     Looted Securities
               711.3     Safehaven
               711.3     Stinnes, Hugo
               711.3     Swiss Looted Gold 
          50   840.3     Fine Arts  location: 350/65/17/05
          1949
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          52   321.3     Enemy Property  location: 350/65/17/05

     Confidential File 1945-1952 (Entry 3012)

          Boxes 2-30
          1945
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          3    711.3/851 Safehaven
               711.3     Safehaven  
          5    840.3     Looted Art  
          1946
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          6    711.3     Safehaven  
          8    851  Marcel Wolf
               851  Deutsche Revisions und Treuhand
               851  Safehaven 
          1947
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          9    711.3     Safehaven  
          11   851  Deutsche Revisions und Treuhand   location: 350/65/18/02

          1948
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          13-16     711.3     Safehaven  
          1949
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          21   321.3     Economic Warfare  

London-American Mission to the Dutch Government in Exile 1940-1944

     General Records 1943-1944 (Entry 3016)

          Boxes 1-5
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          1    711  Atrocities  
          3    711  Situation in the Netherlands  
          4    711.3     Alien Property Custodian
               711.3     Enemy Property  
          5    851  Federal Reserve
               851  Treasury, U.S.  

     Classified General Records 1940-1944 (Entry 3017)

          Boxes 1-4

Amsterdam Consulate General
 
     General Records 1936-1941, 1945-1949 (Entry 3018)

          Boxes 1-92

          1940
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          55   711.3     Enemy Property, Trading With the Enemy
          1945
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          70   350  Deutsche Revisions und Treuhand  location: 350/65/21/06
          71   840.1     Dutch-Jewish Community-Present Position of  loc: 350/65/21/06
          1946
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          75   350  Deutsche Revisions und Treuhand  location: 350/65/21/07
          77   840.1     Dutch-Jewish Community-Present Position of
               840.3     Paintings and Objects of Art Recovered 
          77-78     851  Blocked Accounts  location: 350/65/21/07
          1947
          Box # File #   File Title or Subject
          81   840.3     Art Treasures, Return of  
          82-83     851  Blocked Accounts   location: 350/65/22/01

Records of the Amsterdam Consulate General

     Classified General Records 1943-1952 (Entry 3019)

          Boxes 1-6

Records of the Rotterdam Consulate General

     General Records 1946-1954 (Entry 3020)

          Boxes 1-2

     Classified General Records 1945-1947, 1949-1952 (Entry 3021)

          Boxes 1-2

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