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

SUMMARY 2 6 5
Certain aspects of the razzia could only be reconstructed by means of a mass of
statistical data. This referred to: the partition of the town in different areas at the
time of the razzia; the way in which the transport to the assembly areas was organised;
the routes taken, which was also of importance to determine how long the men stayed
aboard ships or in the trains which carried them to Germany and to find out whether
their mood and their will to escape had been influenced by the situation in which
they found themselves.
The value of the questionnaires largely depended on their number. The quality of
the final result was to be determined by their quantity. However, the author was also
confident that if a large number of questionnaires would be filled in, many striking
details would be communicated. This hope was fulfilled especially as regards the
assistance rendered to the men of Rotterdam by the population of the towns and
villages they passed.
Different questionnaires were sent to the men who had been deported, to a large
number of women who had been left behind and to the directors of municipal and
private undertakings. This last questionnaire enabled the author to gain inside
knowledge on the disorganising influence of the razzia and to control data supplied by
the Gewestelijk Arbeidsbureau (Rotterdam Labour Office), the Rotterdamse Bank N.V.
and the banking firm of R. Mees en Zoonen. These two banking firms had given
emergency assistance to the families of men who had been deported.
On other aspects of the razzia data were supplied by the municipal police of
Rotterdam and Schiedam and by members of the resistance movement. Members of
the police forces who had been on duty during the night of 9 to 10 and 10 to 11 November
1944 were asked by their superiors to write a report on the movement of
German troops they had witnessed. As there was a curfew in Rotterdam at the time,
the police were the only people able to give information on this vital point. Nearly
all of them did so.
The underground press and a few underground pamphlets provided information
on the way in which resistance organisations in Rotterdam and elsewhere had reacted
to the success gained by the Germans and on the attitude of the Rotterdam population
during and after the razzia. The fact that certain members of the resistance movement
had been warned of coming events on the evening before the razzia, was established
by means of interviews.
For the introductory chapter on the history of Rotterdam during the occupation
and the closing one on developments after the razzia, much assistance was received
from many private and municipal institutions; for instance 15.000 files were looked
through by officials of the War Damage Commission Rotterdam. These files supplied
data as to the various places in Germany where the men of Rotterdam had been sent to.
To sum up, the material finally available to the author when writing the book
was as follows:
1. Personal letters: 100 letters, totalling 900 pages.