Victims and Survivors: The Nazi Persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands 1940-1945

'The Diary of Anne Frank' remains an icon of Holocaust literature, yet comparatively little is known about the wider circumstances in which the individual tragedy of the Frank family was played out. The debate that has retained the greatest popular and scholarly significance addresses a paradox evident when comparison is made between Jewish mortality in the Netherlands and that in neighbouring European states. How was it possible, in a country proud of its traditions of liberalism and tolerance, that such a large proportion of its Jewish citizens could fall victim to Nazi genocide, when those in France and Belgium fared markedly better? Bob Moore's comprehensive study, the first in English in nearly 30 years, examines all the central elements of the debate: the nature of the Nazi persecuters, their victims, and the specific circumstances of the German occupation of the Netherlands in an attempt to answer this question. Bringing together the work of Dutch and other scholars, the book also charts the development of Nazi policies in the Netherlands and their effects on those who perished and on the few who managed to survive.