Surviving the Holocaust: Socio-demographic Differences Among Amsterdam Jews

Abstract

This study determined the victimisation rate among Amsterdam Jews and socio-demographic differences in surviving the Holocaust. After linking a registration list of over 77,000 Jewish inhabitants in 1941 to post-war lists of Jewish victims and survivors, the victimisation rate lies between 74.3 and 75.3 %. Differences in survival chances and risk of being killed are examined by using multivariable logistic and Cox regression analyses. While male Jews had a reduced risk of death, in the end their survival chances hardly differed from females. Though Jews aged 6–14 and 31–50 initially had a lower risk of death, in the end compared with Jews aged 15–30 they had lower survival chances, just as Jews aged 50+. For Jews aged 0–5, it was the other way around. Immigrants showed better survival chances than native Jews. German Jews showed better survival chances than Dutch Jews, but Polish and other Jewish nationals showed highest survival chances. Jews who had abandoned Judaism had better survival chances than Jews belonging to an Israelite congregation. Divorced, widowed and unmarried adult Jews had better survival chances than married Jews and their children; Jews married to non-Jews, however, had one of the highest survival chances. Jews in the two highest social classes had better survival chances than jobless Jews. These findings indicate that survival was not random but related to socio-demographic characteristics. This sheds light on demographic consequences of conflict and violence: Nazi persecution reduced the Amsterdam Jewish community drastically, and socio-demographic differences in survival impacted the post-war Jewish population structure.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10680-016-9403-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

“Web-based, second-best togetherness”: Psychosocial group intervention with children of Holocaust survivors during COVID-19.

“…As one OHS stated, "Being targeted as older is very triggering," because feeling like a particularly targeted group is itself a reminder of the persecution of the Jewish population during the Holocaust. Furthermore, older adults, in particular, were targeted for selection to the gas chambers immediately upon arrival at the concentration camps, and those older than 50 were much less likely to survive the Holocaust regardless of their circumstances during that period (Tammes, 2017). Consequently, the perceptions of their own age and the elevated risk associated with it might be particularly triggering for OHS in the context of COVID-19.…”

Jewish Refugee Children in the Netherlands during World War II: Migration, Settlement, and Survival

“…Second, we investigate whether different migration and settlement trajectories were associated with the risk of being deported to, and killed in, Nazi-camps. Tammes (2007Tammes ( , 2017 found that German Jews living in the Netherlands during the Nazi-occupation had a higher survival rate than native-born Jews. These studies also found that immigrant children had higher survival chances than native-born children.…”

Medical sabotage by Jewish doctors in Nazi-occupied Netherlands and Holocaust survival

“…She could have made other and better comparisons when having used the municipal Nazi-registrations of Jews including sociodemographic characteristics using occupation, nationality, marital status, and gender. Based on the Amsterdam Nazi-registration list of May 1941 linked to post-war victimization lists 9 , I calculated victimization rates for A) 229 Dutch doctors [Van den Ende counted 261], B) 267 other Dutch health professionals such as dentists, pharmacists, nurses etc., C) 1136 Dutch Jews with occupations in highest social class, D) 19616 Dutch Jewish men aged 21-60 as most doctors were males in that age range, respectively 42%, 52%, 55%, and 75%; included in these rates are Jews killed by Nazis in-and outside Nazi camps and suicides, though excluded are Jews who died of natural causes, such as 8 doctors. Besides, of the 26 German doctors 16 were killed (62%), suggesting being a doctor was less protective for German refugees.…”