Amsterdam's municipality will pay 100,000 euros in compensation for the fact that the city transported 48,000 Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II using money from tram tickets, the DutchNews news portal reported on Friday.
The municipality announced this after the presentation of Lost City
The film examines the role of urban tram transport in collaboration with the Nazis. In Lindwer's film, together with the writer Guus Luijters, he traveled around the key sites of the Holocaust in Amsterdam by tram number 8 and interviewed survivors. Tram line 8 was used by the Nazis to transport Jews, as it connected the station to the Jewish areas of Amsterdam.
The work highlights the role of the night trams in the deportation of 48,000 Amsterdam Jews.
The director told the news portal: during the making of the film, they discovered that the Amsterdam tram company cooperated closely with the Nazis, who also rented flights from the company to deport the Jews. Their research
brought to light new evidence of the tramway that transported Anne Frank and her family from the Weteringschans prison to the central station in August 1944 after the Germans discovered the family's hideout, the "back tract".
The Amsterdam transport company GVB employed a debt collector for two years after the war to recover the Frank family's travel expenses from the Germans.
The municipality of Amsterdam promised to pay 100,000 euros to the Jewish organization Centraal Joods Overleg. The compensation offered corresponds to the amount the city charged for the tram tickets during the deportations. Further compensation may be forthcoming, as researchers are preparing an official study this year of Amsterdam's role in collaborating with the Nazis.
The municipality stated in its press release that
"the city tram company has a historical and moral responsibility to account for its participation in the deportation of the Jews of Amsterdam". GVB's "heartfelt and sincere regrets"
expressed.
Commemorative plaques are erected at several stops of tram line 8. The GVB will also provide information in the travel application about "what shocking events happened at these locations".
Featured image: Reuters / F. Bensch
