Baarn, 27 January, World Holocaust Remembrance Day
Bookkeepers of the Holocaust is an academic study of the Holocaust in the Netherlands — a country that saw 75% of its Jewish population murdered; the highest percentage of all of the West European countries occupied by Germany during World War II. Historian Rob Bakker researched the role of the Dutch bureaucratic system in the registration, isolation, robbing, arresting, and deportation of the Jews.
The administrative role of Dutch civil servants is highlighted, as are the actions by the Dutch police and the Dutch railway service NS, and the Dutch business community, which all played a decisive role in the high mortality figures. Dutch historian Jacques Presser has characterised the Holocaust in the Netherlands as: ‘Genocide as an official task‘. And Adolf Eichmann recounted about the Netherlands during his trial in Israel: ‘Diese Transporte rillten, dass man sagen kann, es war ein pracht’. (‘[In the Netherlands], the trains rolled along beautifully’).
Rob Bakker studied the official archives of the national and local administrations, those of the police force and railway services, and of the transit camps for Dutch Jews, Camp Westerbork and Camp Vught, portals to the death camps of Nazi Germany.
In addition, his research included over 500 publications with the latest developments in Dutch research on the Holocaust, and international research by renowded scholars (which does not include the recent commercial project and book titled The Betrayal of Anna Frank).
For the translation of this voluminous study of 736 pages, funds are being raised by Stichting NOBEL (Nederlandse Onafhankelijke Behartiging Literatuur), the Dutch independent foundation to promote literature. The foundation is registered at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK 41002062), and fiscally recognised as a cultural organisation (fiscal number ANBI 816639012).
For further information about the foundation, please contact us by email at stichtingnobel1@gmail.com
For more information about the book, please contact the author, Rob Bakker, at robbakkerauthor@gmail.com.
Stichting Nobel 
Geef een reactie