De razzia van Rotterdam. 10-11 november 1944 - KNAW

262 SUMMARY
The following objects must be taken along:
warm clothing, heavy boots, blankets, a raincoat, cutlery and bread for one day. Bicycles
will remain in the possession o f their owner.
The daily compensation will consist o f good food, tobacco and five guilders.
Members o f the family who are left behind will be taken care of.
All inhabitants of the town are forbidden to leave their domicile.
Those trying to escape or who offer resistance will be shot.
As a result of this order about 40.000 inhabitants of Rotterdam and Schiedam 1
were taken to Germany and about 10.000 to the eastern part of the Netherlands.
In carrying out the research the first thing to be investigated was how the razzia
had been prepared and organized by the Germans. Was it carried out according to a
fixed scheme or haphazardly? How did the Germans succeed in controlling the men
they had captured as long as they were in Rotterdam? What measures were taken
against the population left behind during the time the arrested men were still in town?
In order to understand the way in which the population of Rotterdam reacted to
the measures taken a detailed investigation had to be made of how the men and
women behaved at the time of the carrying out of the razzia. How did they show their
surprise? How did they first learn of the razzia? What rumours were circulating in
those parts of the town where the Germans had not yet appeared? What arguments
decided the men to report or to go into hiding? What were the arguments used by
their parents or by other members of the family? How did the population behave
while the men were marched out of their streets? How can one account for the power-
lessness of the men of Rotterdam after they had been assembled first in small, later
in large numbers? Were there no possibilities of escape either during the march to
the assembly areas or out of the town?
These events and problems could not be studied in isolation. They had to be seen
against the background of the military and economic situation of the German Reich
and of the development of Rotterdam in the preceding years of war.
Specifically investigation revolved round whether there was any connection between
the Rotterdam razzia and the measures taken by the Germans in the course of the
war in order to make Dutch manpower available to the German war economy. In
August 1944 the Germans had suffered a heavy defeat in France. The part which
had been allotted to the Netherlands resistance movement in view of the liberation
of the Netherlands, was also made a subject of investigation.
The program of research was extended to the transport of the men who had been
arrested to the eastern part of Holland and to Germany and to the reaction of the
Netherlands population in the towns they passed. Another point to be investigated
was how social and economic life in Rotterdam was disorganised after the razzia.
In doing so it was diflicult to isolate the factor of the general deterioration of living
1 In the rest of the summary “Rotterdam” will be used to indicate both Rotterdam and Schiedam.