“The Auschwitz reservation”: Dutch Victims and Bystanders and Their Knowledge of the Holocaust

Based largely upon 164 diaries written during the German occupation, this case study of the Netherlands calls into question the notion that the populations of occupied Europe could have known much about the Holocaust. Dutch Jews and Gentiles may have understood the genocidal intent behind deportations of Jews, but did not understand the concrete meaning of “annihilation.” They largely assumed that the Nazis’ boasts would take time to realize—time the perpetrators did not have. Thus, both Gentiles and Jews misjudged the relative dangers of deportation versus hiding, which helps explain Dutch behavior.