181-524: Elisabeth " Bep " Voskuijl ( Dutch pronunciation: [eːˈlisaːbɛd bɛp ˈfɔskœyl] ; 5 July 1919 – 6 May 1983) was a resident of Amsterdam who helped conceal Anne Frank and her family from Nazi persecution during the occupation of the Netherlands . In the early versions of Het Achterhuis , known in English as The Diary of a Young Girl , she was given the pseudonym " Elli Vossen ". Bep
362-498: A British publication about having created the organisation on his own initiative and how he was "chiefly responsible" for the elimination of the Marxist and Communist threat to Germany and Prussia . Describing the activities of the organisation, Göring boasted about the utter ruthlessness required for Germany's recovery, the establishment of concentration camps for that purpose, and even went on to claim that excesses were committed in
543-761: A Prussian state agency, the Gestapo became a national one as a sub-office of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; Security Police). From 27 September 1939, it was administered by the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). It became known as Amt (Dept) 4 of the RSHA and was considered a sister organisation to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service). The Gestapo committed widespread atrocities during its existence. The power of
724-670: A caricature of Hitler to a Catholic teacher suspected of being lukewarm about teaching National Socialism in his classroom. The "administrative control" category concerned those who were breaking the law concerning residency in the city. The "conventional criminality" category concerned economic crimes such as money laundering , smuggling and homosexuality. Normal methods of investigation included various forms of blackmail , threats and extortion to secure "confessions". Beyond that, sleep deprivation and various forms of harassment were used as investigative methods. Failing that, torture and planting evidence were common methods of resolving
905-414: A case, especially if the case concerned someone Jewish. Brutality on the part of interrogators—often prompted by denunciations and followed with roundups —enabled the Gestapo to uncover numerous resistance networks; it also made them seem like they knew everything and could do anything they wanted. While the total number of Gestapo officials was limited when contrasted against the represented populations,
1086-479: A city thought to be overwhelmed by the tourist influx. Construction of a new metro line connecting the part of the city north of the IJ to its southern part was started in 2003. The project was controversial because its cost had exceeded its budget by a factor of three by 2008, because of fears of damage to buildings in the centre, and because construction had to be halted and restarted multiple times. The new metro line
1267-777: A concentration camp. Thereafter, there was a show trial overseen by Roland Freisler , followed by their execution. Some Germans were convinced that it was their duty to apply all possible expedients to end the war as quickly as possible. Sabotage efforts were undertaken by members of the Abwehr (military intelligence) leadership, as they recruited people known to oppose the Nazi regime. The Gestapo cracked down ruthlessly on dissidents in Germany, just as they did everywhere else. Opposition became more difficult. Arrests, torture, and executions were common. Terror against "state enemies" had become
1448-538: A concerted campaign to convince Hitler to take action against Röhm. Both the SD and Gestapo released information concerning an imminent putsch by the SA. Once persuaded, Hitler acted by setting Himmler's SS into action, who then proceeded to murder over 100 of Hitler's identified antagonists. The Gestapo supplied the information which implicated the SA and ultimately enabled Himmler and Heydrich to emancipate themselves entirely from
1629-510: A corner". Anne considered Bep, who was ten years older, to be one of the "young people" and was very curious about Bep's experiences: the films she was seeing, but also how things were going between Bep and her fiancé. For lunch, Bep joined the people in the Secret Annex, because at home there was not always enough to eat for ten people. In her diary Anne characterized her as follows: "Bep has a healthy appetite. Leaves nothing on her plate and
1810-726: A defense of Catholicism during the Protestant Reformation. The main reasons for the uprising were the imposition of new taxes, the tenth penny, and the religious persecution of Protestants by the newly introduced Inquisition . The revolt escalated into the Eighty Years' War , which ultimately led to Dutch independence. Strongly pushed by Dutch Revolt leader William the Silent , the Dutch Republic became known for its relative religious tolerance. Jews from
1991-609: A flood in 1916, the depleted municipalities of Durgerdam, Holysloot, Zunderdorp and Schellingwoude , all lying north of Amsterdam, were, at their own request, annexed to the city. Between the wars, the city continued to expand, most notably to the west of the Jordaan district in the Frederik Hendrikbuurt and surrounding neighbourhoods. Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 and took control of
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#17327836338532172-602: A full-service bank for Dutch merchant bankers and as a reserve bank. From the 17th century onwards, Amsterdam also became involved in the Atlantic slave trade . The city was a major destination port for Dutch slave ships participating in the triangular trade , which lasted until the United Netherlands abolished the Netherlands' involvement in the trade in 1814 at the request of the British government . Amsterdam
2353-466: A junction of international waterways. A settlement was built here immediately after the landscape change of 1170. Right from the start of its foundation it focused on traffic, production and trade; not on farming, as opposed to how communities had lived further upstream for the past 200 years and northward for thousands of years. The construction of a dam at the mouth of the Amstel, eponymously named Dam ,
2534-420: A letter to Otto Frank, Bep admitted she would much prefer to "distance herself from everything (...). Also, the pleasant things, such as invitations here and there, are nerve-racking before and after. You know, a loss for words plays the main role here. I know that you all mean well and certainly appreciate it and don't want to break with anyone in our Opekta circle. (...) I would do everything in my power to uphold
2715-488: A modest semi-permanent or seasonal settlement. Until water issues were controlled, a permanent settlement would not have been possible, since the river mouth and the banks of the Amstel in this period in time were too wet for permanent habitation. The origins of Amsterdam are linked to the development of a dam on the Amstel River called Amestelle , meaning 'watery area', from Aa(m) 'river' + stelle 'site at
2896-566: A new generation of National Socialist adherents, who were hard-working, efficient, and prepared to carry the Nazi state forward through the persecution of their political opponents. By the spring of 1934, Himmler's SS controlled the SD and the Gestapo, but for him, there was still a problem, as technically the SS (and the Gestapo by proxy) was subordinated to the SA, which was under the command of Ernst Röhm . Himmler wanted to free himself entirely from Röhm, whom he viewed as an obstacle. Röhm's position
3077-605: A number of hot and humid days with occasional rain every month. The average daily high in August is 22.1 °C (72 °F), and 30 °C (86 °F) or higher is only measured on average on 2.5 days, placing Amsterdam in AHS Heat Zone 2. The record extremes range from −19.7 °C (−3.5 °F) to 36.3 °C (97.3 °F). Days with more than 1 mm (0.04 in) of precipitation are common, on average 133 days per year. Amsterdam's average annual precipitation
3258-475: A radical departure from German tradition, which held that law enforcement was (mostly) a Land (state) and local matter. In this, he ran into conflict with Schutzstaffel (SS) chief Heinrich Himmler who was police chief of the second most powerful German state, Bavaria . Frick did not have the political power to take on Göring by himself so he allied with Himmler. With Frick's support, Himmler (pushed on by his right-hand man, Reinhard Heydrich ) took over
3439-518: A shoreline', 'river bank'. In this area, land reclamation started as early as the late 10th century. Amestelle was located along a side arm of the IJ. This side arm took the name from the eponymous land: Amstel. Amestelle was inhabited by farmers, who lived more inland and more upstream, where the land was not as wet as at the banks of the downstream river mouth. These farmers were starting the reclamation around upstream Ouderkerk aan de Amstel , and later at
3620-639: A similar education could be hired as female detectives. Female youth leaders, lawyers, business administrators with experience in social work, female leaders in the Reichsarbeitsdienst and personnel administrators in the Bund Deutscher Mädel were hired as detectives after a one-year course, if they had several years professional experience. Later, nurses, kindergarten teachers, and trained female commercial employees with an aptitude for police work were hired as female detectives after
3801-556: A strong influence on the 'Amsterdam dialect' adding a large Yiddish local vocabulary. Despite an absence of an official Jewish ghetto , most Jews preferred to live in the eastern part, which used to be the centre of medieval Amsterdam. The main street of this Jewish neighbourhood was Jodenbreestraat. The neighbourhood comprised the Waterlooplein and the Nieuwmarkt . Buildings in this neighbourhood fell into disrepair after
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#17327836338533982-399: A thing, or perhaps it was her inner self that came out." Later, Anne would occasionally show Bep diary passages, although she carefully screened her notes from the eyes of the other hiders. Bep provided Anne with carbon paper she brought from the office. In addition to her care for the people in hiding, Bep also had to take care of her father. In the spring of 1943, he became seriously ill and
4163-649: A threat to the Volksgemeinschaft (National Community). From the Nazis rise to national power in 1933, the number of court verdicts against homosexuals steadily increased and only declined once the Second World War started. In 1934, a special Gestapo office was set up in Berlin to deal with homosexuality. Despite male homosexuality being considered a greater danger to "national survival", lesbianism
4344-564: A total of 41 Gestapo men combined. In Düsseldorf , the local Gestapo office of only 281 men were responsible for the entire Lower Rhine region, which comprised 4 million people. In lower Franconia, which included Würzburg , there were only twenty-two Gestapo officers overseeing 840,000 or more inhabitants; this meant that the Nazi secret police "was reliant on Germans spying on each other". These "V-men", as undercover Gestapo agents were known, were used to infiltrate Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and Communist opposition groups, but this
4525-464: A two-year course as Kriminaloberassistentin and could promote to a Kriminalsekretärin . After another two or three years in that grade, the female detective could advance to Kriminalobersekretärin . Further promotions to Kriminalkommissarin and Kriminalrätin were also possible. In 1933, there was no purge of the German police forces. The vast majority of Gestapo officers came from
4706-638: A way of life to such a degree that the Gestapo's presence and methods were eventually normalised in the minds of people living in Nazi Germany. In January 1933, Hermann Göring, Hitler's minister without portfolio , was appointed the head of the Prussian Police and began filling the political and intelligence units of the Prussian Secret Police with Nazi Party members. A year after the organisation's inception, Göring wrote in
4887-516: Is 838 mm (33 in). A large part of this precipitation falls as light rain or brief showers. Cloudy and damp days are common during the cooler months of October through March. In 1300, Amsterdam's population was around 1,000 people. While many towns in Holland experienced population decline during the 15th and 16th centuries, Amsterdam's population grew, mainly due to the rise of the profitable Baltic maritime trade especially in grain after
5068-649: Is considered its Golden Age , during which it became the wealthiest city in the Western world. Ships sailed from Amsterdam to the Baltic Sea , the Caribbean, North America, and Africa, as well as present-day Indonesia , India, Sri Lanka , and Brazil , forming the basis of a worldwide trading network. Amsterdam's merchants had the largest share in both the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and
5249-483: Is historically estimated to have occurred between 1264 and 1275. The settlement first appeared in a document from 1275, concerning a road toll granted by the count of Holland Floris V to the residents apud Amestelledamme 'at the dam in the Amstel' or 'at the dam of Amstelland'. This allowed the inhabitants of the village to travel freely through the County of Holland , paying no tolls at bridges, locks and dams. This
5430-642: Is in the southwest. Amsterdam is connected to the North Sea through the long North Sea Canal . Amsterdam is intensely urbanised, as is the Amsterdam metropolitan area surrounding the city. Comprising 219.4 km (84.7 sq mi) of land, the city proper has 4,457 inhabitants per km and 2,275 houses per km . Parks and nature reserves make up 12% of Amsterdam's land area. Amsterdam has more than 100 km (60 mi) of canals , most of which are navigable by boat. The city's three main canals are
5611-511: Is located in the Western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland , the capital of which is not Amsterdam, but rather Haarlem . The river Amstel ends in the city centre and connects to a large number of canals that eventually terminate in the IJ . Amsterdam's elevation is about −2 m (−6.6 ft) below sea level . The surrounding land is flat as it is formed of large polders . An artificial forest, Amsterdamse Bos ,
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5792-474: Is not picky and choosy. She is easy to please and that is just what pleases us. Cheerful and good-tempered, willing and good-natured, these are her characteristics." In October 1942, Anne convinced Bep to spend a night in the Secret Annex, but Bep did not sleep a wink. "To tell you the truth, I was terrified. Every time I heard a tree creaking in the October wind or a car driving along the canal, I grew afraid. I
5973-688: The Concertgebouw were built; At the same time, the Industrial Revolution reached the city. The Amsterdam–Rhine Canal was dug to give Amsterdam a direct connection to the Rhine , and the North Sea Canal was dug to give the port a shorter connection to the North Sea . Both projects dramatically improved commerce with the rest of Europe and the world. In 1906, Joseph Conrad gave a brief description of Amsterdam as seen from
6154-415: The 20 July plot , this assassination attempt failed and Hitler was only slightly injured. Reports indicate that the Gestapo was caught unaware of this plot as they did not have sufficient protections in place at the appropriate locations nor did they take any preventative steps. Stauffenberg and his group were shot on 21 July 1944; meanwhile, his fellow conspirators were rounded up by the Gestapo and sent to
6335-574: The Amstel ' ) is the capital and most populated city of the Netherlands . It has a population of 921,402 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the urban area and 2,480,394 in the metropolitan area . Located in the Dutch province of North Holland , Amsterdam is colloquially referred to as the " Venice of the North ", for its large number of canals , now a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Amsterdam
6516-829: The Dam Square , where the Royal Palace of Amsterdam and former city hall are located; the Amsterdam Museum ; Stedelijk Museum , with modern art; the Concertgebouw concert hall; the Anne Frank House ; the Scheepvaartmuseum , the Natura Artis Magistra ; Hortus Botanicus , NEMO , the red-light district and cannabis coffee shops . The city is known for its nightlife and festival activity, with several nightclubs among
6697-634: The Dutch East Indies in the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s guest workers from Turkey, Morocco, Italy, and Spain immigrated to Amsterdam. After the independence of Suriname in 1975, a large wave of Surinamese settled in Amsterdam, mostly in the Bijlmer area. Other immigrants, including refugees asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants , came from Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. In
6878-474: The Dutch Republic , which itself was a much smaller state than Great Britain, France or the Ottoman Empire . In contrast to those other metropolises, Amsterdam was also surrounded by large towns such as Leiden (about 67,000), Rotterdam (45,000), Haarlem (38,000) and Utrecht (30,000). The city's population declined in the early 19th century, dipping under 200,000 in 1820. By the second half of
7059-593: The Dutch West India Company . These companies acquired overseas possessions that later became Dutch colonies . Amsterdam was Europe's most important hub for the shipment of goods and was the leading financial centre of the Western world. In 1602, the Amsterdam office of the Dutch East India Company became the world's first stock exchange by trading in its own shares. The Bank of Amsterdam started operations in 1609, acting as
7240-621: The Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685, while the Flemish Protestants came during the Eighty Years' War against Catholic Spain. The Westphalians came to Amsterdam mostly for economic reasons; their influx continued through the 18th and 19th centuries. Before the Second World War, 10% of the city population was Jewish . Just twenty percent of them survived the Holocaust . Amsterdam experienced an influx of religions and cultures after
7421-566: The German Labour Front (DAF), a Nazi organisation placed under the leadership of Robert Ley . For their part, this was the first time the Gestapo operated under its new name since its 26 April 1933 founding in Prussia. Many parts of Germany (where religious dissent existed upon the Nazi seizure of power) saw a rapid transformation; a change as noted by the Gestapo in conservative towns such as Würzburg, where people acquiesced to
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7602-756: The Habsburgs , who unlike most across the Greater German Reich, remained determined to resist the Nazis. These groups became a special focus of the Gestapo because of their insurrectionist goals—the overthrow of the Nazi regime, the re-establishment of an independent Austria under Habsburg leadership—and Hitler's hatred of the Habsburg family. Hitler vehemently rejected the centuries' old Habsburg pluralist principles of "live and let live" with regard to ethnic groups, peoples, minorities, religions, cultures and languages. Habsburg loyalist Karl Burian 's (who
7783-664: The Iberian Peninsula , Protestant Huguenots from France, prosperous merchants and printers from Flanders , and economic and religious refugees from the Spanish-controlled parts of the Low Countries found safety in Amsterdam. The influx of Flemish printers and the city's intellectual tolerance made Amsterdam a centre for the European free press . During the 17th century, Amsterdam experienced what
7964-563: The Netherlands , kidnapped two British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) officers after having lured them to a meeting to discuss peace terms. This prompted Winston Churchill to ban any further contact with the German opposition. Later, the British and Americans did not want to deal with anti-Nazis because they were fearful that the Soviet Union would believe they were attempting to make deals behind their back. The German opposition
8145-449: The Night and Fog Decree ( German : Nacht und Nebel )—simply disappeared while in Gestapo custody. Contrary to popular perception, the Gestapo was actually a relatively small organization with limited surveillance capability; still it proved extremely effective due to the willingness of ordinary Germans to report on fellow citizens. During World War II , the Gestapo played a key role in
8326-766: The North Sea to the west, with prevailing westerly winds. Amsterdam, as well as most of the North Holland province, lies in USDA Hardiness zone 8b. Frosts mainly occur during spells of easterly or northeasterly winds from the inner European continent. Even then, because Amsterdam is surrounded on three sides by large bodies of water, as well as having a significant heat-island effect , nights rarely fall below −5 °C (23 °F), while it could easily be −12 °C (10 °F) in Hilversum , 25 km (16 mi) southeast. Summers are moderately warm with
8507-792: The Prinsengracht , the Herengracht and the Keizersgracht . In the Middle Ages , Amsterdam was surrounded by a moat, called the Singel , which now forms the innermost ring in the city, and gives the city centre a horseshoe shape. The city is also served by a seaport . It has been compared with Venice , due to its division into about 90 islands, which are linked by more than 1,200 bridges. Amsterdam has an oceanic climate ( Köppen : Cfb ) strongly influenced by its proximity to
8688-613: The Reichstag fire . In late 1933, the Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick wanted to integrate all the police forces of the German states under his control. Göring outflanked him by removing the Prussian political and intelligence departments from the state interior ministry. Göring took over the Gestapo in 1934 and urged Hitler to extend the agency's authority throughout Germany. This represented
8869-506: The Sinti and Roma population, handicapped persons , homosexuals and above all, upon the Jews. "Selective terror" by the Gestapo, as mentioned by Johnson, is also supported by historian Richard Evans who states that, "Violence and intimidation rarely touched the lives of most ordinary Germans. Denunciation was the exception, not the rule, as far as the behaviour of the vast majority of Germans
9050-418: The UNESCO World Heritage List . In the 21st century, the Amsterdam city centre has attracted large numbers of tourists: between 2012 and 2015, the annual number of visitors rose from 10 to 17 million. Real estate prices have surged, and local shops are making way for tourist-oriented ones, making the centre unaffordable for the city's inhabitants. These developments have evoked comparisons with Venice ,
9231-485: The Weimar Republic stayed on in their jobs. In Würzburg , which is one of the few places in Germany where most of the Gestapo records survived, every member of the Gestapo was a career policeman or had a police background. The Canadian historian Robert Gellately wrote that most Gestapo men were not Nazis, but at the same time were not opposed to the Nazi regime, which they were willing to serve, in whatever task they were called upon to perform. Over time, membership in
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#17327836338539412-521: The black market contacts of the Secret Annex helpers. She went into hiding for a week and then got back to the office, after which she entered the Secret Annex and saved parts of Anne's diaries, that were scattered over the floor. A few days earlier, Miep had already saved Anne's red-checkered diary and a few other notebooks. Bep was honored in later years for her activities during the Second World War , but disliked publicity and gave few interviews about her association with Anne Frank. However, she followed
9593-443: The social housing projects in Amsterdam-West and the Bijlmer. Today, people of non-Western origin make up approximately one-fifth of the population of Amsterdam, and more than 30% of the city's children. A slight majority of the residents of Amsterdam have at least one parent who was born outside the country. However, a much larger majority has at least one parent who was born inside the country (intercultural marriages are common in
9774-460: The 1970s and 1980s, many 'old' Amsterdammers moved to 'new' cities like Almere and Purmerend , prompted by the third Land-use planning bill of the Dutch Government. This bill promoted suburbanization and arranged for new developments in so-called "groeikernen", literally cores of growth . Young professionals and artists moved into neighborhoods De Pijp and the Jordaan abandoned by these Amsterdammers. The non-Western immigrants settled mostly in
9955-422: The 19th century, industrialization spurred renewed growth. Amsterdam's population hit an all-time high of 872,000 in 1959, before declining in the following decades due to government-sponsored suburbanisation to so-called groeikernen (growth centres) such as Purmerend and Almere . Between 1970 and 1980, Amsterdam experienced a sharp population decline, peaking at a net loss of 25,000 people in 1973. By 1985
10136-538: The 84 cases in Würzburg of Rassenschande ("race defilement"—sexual relations with non- Aryans ), 45 (54%) were started in response to denunciations by ordinary people, two (2%) by information provided by other branches of the government, 20 (24%) via information gained during interrogations of people relating to other matters, four (5%) from information from (Nazi) NSDAP organisations, two (2%) during "political evaluations" and 11 (13%) have no source listed while none were started by Gestapo ' s own "observations" of
10317-400: The Allies. The Maier group informed very early about the mass murder of Jews. The resistance group, later discovered by the Gestapo because of a double agent of the Abwehr, was in contact with Allen Dulles , the head of the US Office of Strategic Services in Switzerland. Although Maier and the other group members were severely tortured, the Gestapo did not uncover the essential involvement of
10498-408: The Annex a lot with each other, as they kept silent to the rest of the Voskuijl family for safety reasons. Bep also managed to keep her fiancé Bertus Hulsman ignorant for twenty-five months. Bep got on well with Anne and the feeling was mutual. In his memoirs, Otto Frank remembered about the friendship between his youngest daughter and Bep that "the two (...) were frequently whispering to each other in
10679-407: The Annex must be helped. For her, that wasn't a difficult choice to make." In 2015, the Belgian journalist Jeroen De Bruyn and Joop van Wijk, Bep Voskuijl's youngest son, released their biography Bep Voskuijl, het zwijgen voorbij. Een biografie van de jongste helpster van het Achterhuis . They were the first ones to provide in-depth information on Bep Voskuijl's life, such as her aid to the people in
10860-616: The Burgundian victory in the Dutch–Hanseatic War in 1441. The population of Amsterdam was only modest compared to the towns and cities of Flanders and Brabant , which comprised the most urbanized area of the Low Countries. This changed when, during the Dutch Revolt , many people from the Southern Netherlands fled to the North, especially after Antwerp fell to Spanish forces in 1585. Jews from Spain, Portugal and Eastern Europe similarly settled in Amsterdam, as did Germans and Scandinavians. In thirty years, Amsterdam's population more than doubled between 1585 and 1610. By 1600, its population
11041-403: The Frank family had already moved into the Secret Annex. For the next two years, her life was governed almost completely by her care for the people in hiding. Bep was responsible for milk and bread, and Bep's sister sewed garments such as pants and blouses for the people in hiding. She also ordered correspondence courses for those in hiding, such as shorthand and Latin . Bep was lucky to have
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#173278363385311222-432: The German government and another 10% started in response to information that the Gestapo itself unearthed. The information supplied by denunciations often led the Gestapo in determining who was arrested. The popular picture of the Gestapo with its spies everywhere terrorising German society has been rejected by many historians as a myth invented after the war as a cover for German society's widespread complicity in allowing
11403-434: The German initials, "GPA", were too similar to those of the Soviet State Political Directorate ( Gosudarstvennoye Politicheskoye Upravlenie , or GPU). The first commander of the Gestapo was Rudolf Diels , a protégé of Göring. Diels was appointed with the title of chief of Abteilung Ia (Department 1a) of the Prussian Secret Police . Diels was best known as the primary interrogator of Marinus van der Lubbe after
11584-514: The Germans was made by a female. They find it curious that Bep was strongly convinced of stockroom manager Willem van Maaren's guilt, but changed her mind when Simon Wiesenthal tracked down Silberbauer in 1963. After this period, Bep started avoiding the media. Amsterdam Amsterdam ( / ˈ æ m s t ər d æ m / AM -stər-dam , UK also / ˌ æ m s t ər ˈ d æ m / AM -stər- DAM , Dutch: [ˌɑmstərˈdɑm] ; lit. ' Dam in
11765-400: The Gestapo Chief. His direct subordinate Adolf Eichmann headed the Gestapo's Office of Resettlement and then its Office of Jewish Affairs ( Referat IV B4 or Sub-Department IV, Section B4). During the Holocaust , Eichmann's department within the Gestapo coordinated the mass deportation of European Jews to the Nazis' extermination camps . The power of the Gestapo included the use of what
11946-411: The Gestapo applied even harsher methods to the foreign workers in the country, especially those from Poland, Jews, Catholics and homosexuals . As time went by, anonymous denunciations to the Gestapo caused trouble to various NSDAP officials, who often found themselves being investigated by the Gestapo. Of the political cases, 61 people were investigated for suspicion of belonging to the KPD, 44 for
12127-476: The Gestapo chain of command and fell under the authority of branches of the SS. It was the Gestapo chief, SS- Brigadierführer Heinrich Müller, who kept Hitler abreast of the killing operations in the Soviet Union and who issued orders to the four Einsatzgruppen that their continual work in the east was to be "presented to the Führer." According to regulations issued by the Reich Security Main Office in 1940, women who had been trained in social work or having
12308-535: The Gestapo discovered a cache of Polish intelligence documents in Prague and were surprised to see that Polish agents and informants had been gathering detailed military information and smuggling it out to London, via Budapest and Istanbul . The Poles identified and tracked German military trains to the Eastern front and identified four Order Police battalions sent to occupied areas of the Soviet Union in October 1941 that engaged in war crimes and mass murder . Polish agents also gathered detailed information about
12489-442: The Gestapo included ideological training, particularly once Werner Best assumed a leading role for training in April 1936. Employing biological metaphors, Best emphasised a doctrine which encouraged members of the Gestapo to view themselves as 'doctors' to the 'national body' in the struggle against "pathogens" and "diseases"; among the implied sicknesses were "communists, Freemasons, and the churches—and above and behind all these stood
12670-464: The Gestapo to work. Work done by social historians such as Detlev Peukert , Robert Gellately, Reinhard Mann, Inge Marssolek, René Otto, Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Paul Gerhard, which by focusing on what the local offices were doing has shown the Gestapo ' s almost total dependence on denunciations from ordinary Germans, and very much discredited the older " Big Brother " picture with the Gestapo having its eyes and ears everywhere. For example, of
12851-404: The Gestapo was used to focus upon political opponents, ideological dissenters (clergy and religious organisations), career criminals, the Sinti and Roma population, handicapped persons, homosexuals, and, above all, the Jews. Those arrested by the Gestapo were often held without judicial process, and political prisoners throughout Germany—and from 1941, throughout the occupied territories under
13032-423: The Gestapo's public image which they sought to maintain despite their increasing workload; an image which helped them identify and eliminate enemies of the Nazi state. Contrary to popular belief, the Gestapo was not the all-pervasive, omnipotent agency in German society. In Germany proper, many towns and cities had fewer than 50 official Gestapo personnel. For example, in 1939 Stettin and Frankfurt am Main only had
13213-408: The Gestapo. According to Canadian historian Robert Gellately 's analysis of the local offices established, the Gestapo was—for the most part—made up of bureaucrats and clerical workers who depended upon denunciations by citizens for their information. Gellately argued that it was because of the widespread willingness of Germans to inform on each other to the Gestapo that Germany between 1933 and 1945
13394-752: The Holocaust . After the war ended, the Gestapo was declared a criminal organisation by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at the Nuremberg trials , and several top Gestapo members were sentenced to death. After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany , Hermann Göring —future commander of the Luftwaffe and the number-two man in the Nazi Party —was named Interior Minister of Prussia . This gave Göring command of
13575-570: The Jews". Heydrich thought along similar lines and advocated both defensive and offensive measures on the part of the Gestapo, so as to prevent any subversion or destruction of the National Socialist body. Whether trained as police originally or not, Gestapo agents themselves were shaped by their socio-political environment. Historian George C. Browder contends that there was a four-part process ( authorisation , bolstering, routinisation, and dehumanisation ) in effect, which legitimised
13756-523: The Kripo (National criminal police) to form sub-units of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; Security Police), the Gestapo was officially classified as a government agency. Himmler's subsequent appointment to Chef der Deutschen Polizei (Chief of German Police) and status as Reichsführer-SS made him independent of Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick's nominal control. The SiPo was placed under
13937-410: The Nazi government's administration, a decision he made on 7 April 1933. As a preface to this action, Hitler decreed May 1 as National Labor Day to celebrate German workers, a move the trade union leaders welcomed. With their trade union flags waving, Hitler gave a rousing speech to the 1.5 million people assembled on Berlin's Tempelhofer Feld that was nationally broadcast, during which he extolled
14118-513: The Nazi regime amounted to very little and had only minor chances of success, particularly since a broad percentage of the German people did not support such actions. Between 1934 and 1938, opponents of the Nazi regime and their fellow travellers began to emerge. Among the first to speak out were religious dissenters but following in their wake were educators, aristocratic businessmen, office workers, teachers, and others from nearly every walk of life. Most people quickly learned that open opposition
14299-589: The Nazis were stalled by the fear of reprisals from the Gestapo. Fearful of an internal overthrow, the forces of the Gestapo were unleashed on the opposition. Groups like the White Rose and others, such as the Edelweiss Pirates , and the Swing Youth , were placed under close Gestapo observation. Some participants were sent to concentration camps. Leading members of the most famous of these groups,
14480-563: The Netherlands. This led to the establishment of many non-Dutch-speaking churches. In 1603, the Jewish received permission to practice their religion in the city. In 1639, the first synagogue was consecrated. The Jews came to call the town " Jerusalem of the West ". As they became established in the city, other Christian denominations used converted Catholic chapels to conduct their own services. The oldest English-language church congregation in
14661-588: The Römer Group, Robby Group, Solf Circle , Schwarze Reichswehr , the Party of the Radical Middle Class, Jungdeutscher Orden , Schwarze Front and Stahlhelm were either discovered or infiltrated by the Gestapo. This led to corresponding arrests, being sent to concentration camps and execution. One of the methods employed by the Gestapo to contend with these resistance factions
14842-459: The SPD and 69 for other political parties. Most of the political investigations took place between 1933 and 1935 with the all-time high of 57 cases in 1935. After that year, political investigations declined with only 18 investigations in 1938, 13 in 1939, two in 1941, seven in 1942, four in 1943 and one in 1944. The "other" category associated with non-conformity included everything from a man who drew
15023-598: The SS Security Service ( Sicherheitsdienst ; SD). Himmler and Heydrich both immediately began installing their own personnel in select positions, several of whom were directly from the Bavarian Political Police , such as Heinrich Müller , Franz Josef Huber , and Josef Meisinger . Many of the Gestapo employees in the newly established offices were young and highly educated in a wide variety of academic fields and moreover, represented
15204-408: The SS and removed it from Frick's control. Himmler was nominally subordinate to Frick as police chief, but as Reichsführer-SS , he answered only to Hitler. This move also gave Himmler operational control over Germany's entire detective force. The Gestapo became a national state agency. Himmler also gained authority over all of Germany's uniformed law enforcement agencies, which were amalgamated into
15385-407: The Second World War a large section of the neighbourhood was demolished during the construction of the metro system. This led to riots, and as a result the original plans for large-scale reconstruction were abandoned by the government. The neighbourhood was rebuilt with smaller-scale residence buildings on the basis of its original layout. Catholic churches in Amsterdam have been constructed since
15566-409: The Second World War. With 180 different nationalities, Amsterdam is home to one of the widest varieties of nationalities of any city in the world. The proportion of the population of immigrant origin in the city proper is about 50% and 88% of the population are Dutch citizens. The first mass immigration in the 20th century was by people from Indonesia, who came to Amsterdam after the independence of
15747-456: The Secret Annex, her relationship with Anne Frank and her postwar life, which was highly influenced by her war past. In Belgium and the Netherlands, the biography received much media attention, mainly because the authors claimed that Bep's sister Nelly (1923–2001) could be seen as a suspect of the betrayal of the Secret Annex. According to De Bruyn and van Wijk, Nelly worked for the Germans during
15928-527: The SiPo and SD were merged into the newly created Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA; Reich Security Main Office ). Both the Gestapo and Kripo became distinct departments within the RSHA. Although the Sicherheitspolizei was officially disbanded, the term SiPo was figuratively used to describe any RSHA personnel throughout the remainder of the war. In lieu of naming convention changes, the original construct of
16109-425: The SiPo, Gestapo, and Kripo cannot be fully comprehended as "discrete entities", since they ultimately formed "a conglomerate in which each was wedded to each other and the SS through its Security Service, the SD". The creation of the RSHA represented the formalisation, at the top level, of the relationship under which the SD served as the intelligence agency for the security police. A similar co-ordination existed in
16290-598: The White Rose, were arrested by the police and turned over to the Gestapo. For several leaders the punishment was death. During the first five months of 1943, the Gestapo arrested thousands suspected of resistance activities and carried out numerous executions. Student opposition leaders were executed in late February, and a major opposition organisation, the Oster Circle , was destroyed in April 1943. Efforts to resist
16471-430: The ability to "project" omnipotence...they co-opted the assistance of the German population by using denunciations to their advantage; proving in the end a powerful, ruthless and effective organ of terror under the Nazi regime that was seemingly everywhere. Lastly, the Gestapo's effectiveness, while aided by denunciations and the watchful eye of ordinary Germans, was more the result of the co-ordination and co-operation amid
16652-551: The atmosphere of fear they created led to an overestimation of their reach and strength; a faulty assessment which hampered the operational effectiveness of underground resistance organisations. Shortly after the Nazis came to power, they decided to dissolve the 28 federations of the General German Trade Union Confederation, because Hitler—after noting their success in the works council elections—intended to consolidate all German workers under
16833-467: The authority to investigate cases of treason , espionage, sabotage and criminal attacks on the Nazi Party and Germany. The basic Gestapo law passed by the government in 1936 gave the Gestapo carte blanche to operate without judicial review —in effect, putting it above the law. The Gestapo was specifically exempted from responsibility to administrative courts, where citizens normally could sue
17014-588: The autumn of 1939), Gestapo officials believed that they had neutralised Polish intelligence activities. However, certain Polish information about the movement of German police and SS units to the East during 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union was similar to information British intelligence secretly obtained through intercepting and decoding German police and SS messages sent by radio telegraphy . In 1942,
17195-465: The average Volksgenosse (Nazi term for the "member of the German people") was typically not under observation, so the statistical ratio between Gestapo officials and inhabitants is "largely worthless and of little significance" according to some recent scholars. As historian Eric Johnson remarked, "The Nazi terror was selective terror", with its focus upon political opponents, ideological dissenters (clergy and religious organisations), career criminals,
17376-460: The beginning, recounting how beatings took place here and there. On 26 April 1933, he reorganised the force's Amt III as the Gestapa (better-known by the " sobriquet " Gestapo), a secret state police intended to serve the Nazi cause. Less than two weeks later in early May 1933, the Gestapo moved into their Berlin headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8. As a result of its 1936 merger with
17557-691: The bishops' reports to the Vatican should be obtained and that the bishops' areas of activity must be found out. Deans were to be targeted as the "eyes and ears of the bishops" and a "vast network" established to monitor the activities of ordinary clergy: "The importance of this enemy is such that inspectors of security police and of the security service will make this group of people and the questions discussed by them their special concern". In Dachau: The Official History 1933–1945 , Paul Berben wrote that clergy were watched closely, and frequently denounced, arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps : "One priest
17738-540: The central command office of the Gestapo was formed. However, these internal departments remained and the Gestapo continued to be a department under the RSHA umbrella. The local offices of the Gestapo, known as Gestapo Leitstellen and Stellen , answered to a local commander known as the Inspekteur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD ("Inspector of the Security Police and Security Service") who, in turn,
17919-427: The churches in the so-called Kirchenkampf . When Church leaders ( clergy ) voiced their misgiving about the euthanasia program and Nazi racial policies, Hitler intimated that he considered them "traitors to the people" and went so far as to call them "the destroyers of Germany". The extreme anti-semitism and neo-pagan heresies of the Nazis caused some Christians to outright resist, and Pope Pius XI to issue
18100-527: The city expanded and new neighborhoods and suburbs were built. The city has a long tradition of openness, liberalism, and tolerance. Cycling is key to the city's modern character, and there are numerous biking paths and lanes spread throughout. Amsterdam's main attractions include its historic canals ; the Rijksmuseum , the state museum with Dutch Golden Age art; the Van Gogh Museum ;
18281-425: The city had only 675,570 residents. This was soon followed by reurbanization and gentrification , leading to renewed population growth in the 2010s. Also in the 2010s, much of Amsterdam's population growth was due to immigration to the city. In the 16th and 17th century, non-Dutch immigrants to Amsterdam were mostly Protestant Huguenots and Flemings , Sephardic Jews , and Westphalians . Huguenots came after
18462-496: The city's Zuidoost (southeast) exclave and the centre of Amsterdam. Further plans were to build a new highway above the metro to connect Amsterdam Centraal and the city centre with other parts of the city. The required large-scale demolitions began in Amsterdam's former Jewish neighborhood. Smaller streets, such as the Jodenbreestraat and Weesperstraat, were widened and almost all houses and buildings were demolished. At
18643-557: The city). Only a third of inhabitants under 15 are autochthons ( person with two parents of Dutch origin). In 2023, autochthons were a minority in 40% of Amsterdam's neighborhoods. Segregation along ethnic lines is clearly visible, with people of non-Western origin, considered a separate group by Statistics Netherlands , concentrating in specific neighborhoods especially in Nieuw-West , Zeeburg , Bijlmer and in certain areas of Amsterdam-Noord . In 2000, Christians formed
18824-673: The city. During the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars , Amsterdam's significance reached its lowest point, with Holland being absorbed into the French Empire . However, the later establishment of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815 marked a turning point. The end of the 19th century is sometimes called Amsterdam's second Golden Age. New museums, a railway station, and
19005-527: The country. Some Amsterdam citizens sheltered Jews, thereby exposing themselves and their families to a high risk of being imprisoned or sent to concentration camps. More than 100,000 Dutch Jews were deported to Nazi concentration camps , of whom some 60,000 lived in Amsterdam. In response, the Dutch Communist Party organized the February strike attended by 300,000 people to protest against
19186-504: The direct command of Reinhard Heydrich who was already chief of the Nazi Party's intelligence service, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). The idea was to fully identify and integrate the party agency (SD) with the state agency (SiPo). Most SiPo members joined the SS and held a rank in both organisations. Nevertheless, in practice there was jurisdictional overlap and operational conflict between the SD and Gestapo. In September 1939,
19367-529: The encyclical Mit brennender Sorge denouncing Nazism and warning Catholics against joining or supporting the Party. Some pastors, like the Protestant clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer , paid for their opposition with their lives. In an effort to counter the strength and influence of spiritual resistance, Nazi records reveal that the Gestapo's Referat B1 monitored the activities of bishops very closely—instructing that agents be set up in every diocese, that
19548-521: The entire city centre. Although the success of this struggle is visible today, efforts for further restoration are still ongoing. The entire city centre has reattained its former splendour and, as a whole, is now a protected area . Many of its buildings have become monuments, and in July 2010 the Grachtengordel (the three concentric canals: Herengracht, Keizersgracht, and Prinsengracht) was added to
19729-541: The exception of the Order Police—were consolidated into the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), headed by Heydrich. The Gestapo became Amt IV (Department IV) of RSHA and Müller became the Gestapo Chief, with Heydrich as his immediate superior. After Heydrich's 1942 assassination, Himmler assumed the leadership of the RSHA until January 1943, when Ernst Kaltenbrunner was appointed chief. Müller remained
19910-481: The fear of the Gestapo after mass arrests and executions in the spring, the opposition still plotted and planned. One of the more famous schemes, Operation Valkyrie , involved a number of senior German officers and was carried out by Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg . In an attempt to assassinate Hitler, Stauffenberg planted a bomb underneath a conference table inside the Wolf's Lair field headquarters. Known as
20091-514: The founding of Amsterdam is later than other urban centres in the Low Countries . However, around the area of what later became Amsterdam, farmers settled as early as three millennia ago. They lived along the prehistoric IJ river and upstream of its tributary Amstel. The prehistoric IJ was a shallow and quiet stream in peatland behind beach ridges . This secluded area was able to grow into an important local settlement centre, especially in
20272-765: The heyday of the Stille Omgang , which became the expression of the pilgrimage after the Protestant Reformation , up to 90,000 pilgrims came to Amsterdam. From the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League . From the 15th century on the city established an independent trade route with the Baltic Sea in grain and timber, cutting out the Hanseatic League as middlemen. The city became
20453-401: The industry. The herring industry relied on international trade cooperation and large initial investments in ships. This required many highly skilled and unskilled workers cooperating, as well as the import of the necessary raw materials to turn an unfinished product into a marketable one. This required merchants to then sell it throughout the continent and book-keepers and accountants to divide
20634-522: The largely Catholic city of Amsterdam joined the revolt against Spanish rule, late in comparison to other major northern Dutch cities. Catholic priests were driven out of the city. Following the Dutch takeover, all churches were converted to Protestant worship. Calvinism was declared the main religion. It was forbidden to openly profess Roman Catholicism and the Catholic hierarchy was prohibited until
20815-549: The largest religious group in the city (28% of the population). The next largest religion was Islam (8%), most of whose followers were Sunni . In 2015, Christians formed the largest religious group in the city (28% of the population). The next largest religion was Islam (7.1%), most of whose followers were Sunni . Amsterdam has been one of the municipalities in the Netherlands which provided immigrants with extensive and free Dutch-language courses, which have benefited many immigrants. Religion in Amsterdam (2015) In 1578,
20996-576: The largest police force in Germany. Soon afterward, Göring detached the political and intelligence sections from the police and filled their ranks with Nazis. On 26 April 1933, Göring merged the two units as the Geheime Staatspolizei , which was abbreviated by a post office clerk for a franking stamp and became known as the "Gestapo". He originally wanted to name it the Secret Police Office ( Geheimes Polizeiamt ), but
21177-515: The late Bronze Age , the Iron Age and the Roman Age . Neolithic and Roman artefacts have also been found in the prehistoric Amstel bedding under Amsterdam's Damrak and Rokin , such as shards of Bell Beaker culture pottery (2200–2000 BC) and a granite grinding stone (2700–2750 BC), but the location of these artefacts around the river banks of the Amstel probably point to a presence of
21358-457: The local offices. Within Germany and areas which were incorporated within the Reich for the purpose of civil administration, local offices of the Gestapo, criminal police, and SD were formally separate. They were subject to co-ordination by inspectors of the security police and SD on the staffs of the local higher SS and police leaders, however, and one of the principal functions of the local SD units
21539-407: The majority of those arrested for homosexuality were males between eighteen and twenty-five years of age. Between June 1942 and March 1943, student protests were calling for an end to the Nazi regime. These included the non-violent resistance of Hans and Sophie Scholl , two leaders of the White Rose student group. However, resistance groups and those who were in moral or political opposition to
21720-443: The mid-19th century . This led to the establishment of clandestine churches , covert religious buildings hidden in pre-existing buildings. Catholics, some Jews and dissenting Protestants worshipped in such buildings. A large influx of foreigners of many religions came to 17th-century Amsterdam, in particular Sefardic Jews from Spain and Portugal, Huguenots from France, Lutherans , Mennonites , as well as Protestants from across
21901-619: The morale of German soldiers in the East. After uncovering a sample of the information the Poles had reported, Gestapo officials concluded that Polish intelligence activity represented a very serious danger to Germany. As late as 6 June 1944, Heinrich Müller—concerned about the leakage of information to the Allies—set up a special unit called Sonderkommando Jerzy that was meant to root out the Polish intelligence network in western and southwestern Europe. In Austria, there were groups still loyal to
22082-401: The nation's revival and working class solidarity. On the following day, the newly formed Gestapo officers, who had been shadowing some 58 trade union leaders, arrested them wherever they could find them—many in their homes. Meanwhile, the SA and police occupied trade union headquarters, arrested functionaries, confiscated their property and assets; all by design so as to be replaced on 12 May by
22263-562: The new Ordnungspolizei (Orpo; Order Police), which became a national agency under SS general Kurt Daluege . Shortly thereafter, Himmler created the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; Criminal Police), merging it with the Gestapo into the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; Security Police), under Heydrich's command. Heinrich Müller was at that time the Gestapo operations chief. He answered to Heydrich, Heydrich answered only to Himmler, and Himmler answered only to Hitler. The Gestapo had
22444-584: The news about Anne's diary closely and composed scrap books with newspaper articles and photo reports. In 1959, she also testified in Otto Frank's lawsuit against two Holocaust deniers in the German city of Lübeck . Together with Miep Gies, she gave a statement to confirm that Anne had written her diary during the hiding. That same year, Bep met with Queen Juliana at the Dutch premiere of the Hollywood film The Diary of Anne Frank by George Stevens . In
22625-585: The occupied territories under the Night and Fog Decree ( German : Nacht und Nebel )—simply disappeared while in Gestapo custody. Up to 30 April 1944, at least 6,639 persons were arrested under Nacht und Nebel orders. However, the total number of people who disappeared as a result of this decree is not known. The Polish government-in-exile in London during World War II received sensitive military information about Nazi Germany from agents and informants throughout Europe. After Germany conquered Poland (in
22806-463: The organisation. For the Gestapo, the next two years following the Night of the Long Knives , a term describing the putsch against Röhm and the SA, were characterised by "behind-the-scenes political wrangling over policing". On 17 June 1936, Hitler decreed the unification of all police forces in Germany and named Himmler as Chief of German Police. This action effectively merged the police into
22987-479: The other side of the river at Amstelveen . The Van Amstel family , known in documents by this name since 1019, held the stewardship in this northwestern nook of the ecclesiastical district of the bishop of Utrecht . The family later served also under the count of Holland . A major turning point in the development of the Amstel river mouth was the All Saint's Flood of 1170 . In an extremely short period of time,
23168-592: The peak of the demolition, the Nieuwmarktrellen ( Nieuwmarkt riots ) broke out; the rioters expressed their fury about the demolition caused by the restructuring of the city. As a result, the demolition was stopped and the highway into the city's centre was never fully built; only the metro was completed. Only a few streets remained widened. The new city hall was built on the almost completely demolished Waterlooplein. Meanwhile, large private organizations, such as Stadsherstel Amsterdam , were founded to restore
23349-504: The people of Würzburg. An examination of 213 denunciations in Düsseldorf showed that 37% were motivated by personal conflicts, no motive could be established in 39%, and 24% were motivated by support for the Nazi regime. The Gestapo always showed a special interest in denunciations concerning sexual matters, especially cases concerning Rassenschande with Jews or between Germans and foreigners, in particular Polish slave workers ;
23530-600: The police forces of the Weimar Republic; members of the SS, the SA, and the Nazi Party also joined the Gestapo but were less numerous. By March 1937, the Gestapo employed an estimated 6,500 people in fifty-four regional offices across the Reich. Additional staff were added in March 1938 consequent the annexation of Austria and again in October 1938 with the acquisition of the Sudetenland . In 1939, only 3,000 out of
23711-501: The political police in state after state. Soon only Prussia was left. Concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to effectively counteract the power of the Sturmabteilung (SA), Göring handed over control of the Gestapo to Himmler on 20 April 1934. Also on that date, Hitler appointed Himmler chief of all German police outside Prussia. Heydrich, named chief of the Gestapo by Himmler on 22 April 1934, also continued as head of
23892-611: The profit. In short, the herring industry was setting up the foundations for what would later become the transcontinental trade system and the Dutch Golden Age , with Amsterdam at its centre, hence the saying "Amsterdam is built on Herring bones". The Low Countries were part of the Hapsburg inheritance and came under the Spanish monarchy in the early sixteenth century. The Dutch rebelled against Philip II of Spain , who led
24073-449: The psycho-social atmosphere conditioning members of the Gestapo to radicalised violence. Browder also describes a sandwich effect, where from above; Gestapo agents were subjected to ideologically oriented racism and criminal biological theories; and from below, the Gestapo was transformed by SS personnel who did not have the proper police training, which showed in their propensity for unrestrained violence. This admixture certainly shaped
24254-520: The public streets, however, were still forbidden under law at the time. Only in the 20th century was Amsterdam's relation to Catholicism normalised, but despite its far larger population size, the episcopal see of the city was placed in the provincial town of Haarlem . Gestapo The Geheime Staatspolizei ( German pronunciation: [ɡəˈhaɪmə ˈʃtaːtspoliˌtsaɪ] ; transl. "Secret State Police" ), abbreviated Gestapo ( German: [ɡəˈstaːpo] ),
24435-532: The raids. The most famous deportee was the young Jewish girl Anne Frank , who died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . At the end of the Second World War, communication with the rest of the country broke down, and food and fuel became scarce. Many citizens traveled to the countryside to forage. Dogs, cats, raw sugar beets , and tulip bulbs—cooked to a pulp—were consumed to stay alive. Many trees in Amsterdam were cut down for fuel, and wood
24616-457: The regime either through accommodation, collaboration, or simple compliance. Increasing religious objections to Nazi policies led the Gestapo to carefully monitor church organisations. For the most part, members of the church did not offer political resistance but simply wanted to ensure that organizational doctrine remained intact. However, the Nazi regime sought to suppress any source of ideology other than its own, and set out to muzzle or crush
24797-574: The resistance group in Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra . Early in the regime's existence, harsh measures were meted out to political opponents and those who resisted Nazi doctrine , such as members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD); a role originally performed by the SA until the SD and Gestapo undermined their influence and took control of Reich security. Because the Gestapo seemed omniscient and omnipotent ,
24978-661: The restoration of the episcopal hierarchy in 1853. One of the principal architects behind the city's Catholic churches, Cuypers , was also responsible for the Amsterdam Centraal station and the Rijksmuseum . In 1924, the Catholic Church hosted the International Eucharistic Congress in Amsterdam; numerous Catholic prelates visited the city, where festivities were held in churches and stadiums. Catholic processions on
25159-738: The seaside, in The Mirror of the Sea . Shortly before the First World War , the city started to expand again, and new suburbs were built. Even though the Netherlands remained neutral in this war, Amsterdam suffered a food shortage, and heating fuel became scarce. The shortages sparked riots in which several people were killed. These riots are known as the Aardappeloproer (Potato rebellion). People started looting stores and warehouses to get supplies, mainly food. On 1 January 1921, after
25340-582: The second half of the 17th century, Amsterdam experienced an influx of Ashkenazim , Jews from Central and Eastern Europe . Jews often fled the pogroms in those areas. The first Ashkenazis who arrived in Amsterdam were refugees from the Khmelnytsky uprising occurring in Ukraine and the Thirty Years' War , which devastated much of Central Europe. They not only founded their own synagogues, but had
25521-472: The shallow river IJ turned into a wide estuary, which from then on offered the Amstel an open connection to the Zuiderzee , IJssel and waterways further afield. This made the water flow of the Amstel more active, so excess water could be drained better. With drier banks, the downstream Amstel mouth became attractive for permanent habitation. Moreover, the river had grown from an insignificant peat stream into
25702-410: The staple market of Europe for bulk cargo . This was made possible due to innovations in the herring fishery , from which Amsterdam reaped great wealth. Herring had demand in markets all around Europe. Inventions of on-board gibbing and the haringbuis in 1415, made longer voyages feasible, and hence enabled Dutch fishermen to follow the herring shoals far from the coasts, giving them a monopoly in
25883-429: The state to conform to laws. As early as 1935, a Prussian administrative court had ruled that the Gestapo's actions were not subject to judicial review. The SS officer Werner Best , one-time head of legal affairs in the Gestapo, summed up this policy by saying, "As long as the police carries out the will of the leadership, it is acting legally". On 27 September 1939, the security and police agencies of Nazi Germany—with
26064-442: The support of her father, who was soon informed of the Secret Annex. Johannes Voskuijl kept an eye on the situation in the warehouse, as the other employees were not let in on the secret. Johannes would also make sure that the waste from the hiding place disappeared unnoticed in the morning. Furthermore, in August 1942, Voskuijl built the famous bookcase that concealed the entrance to the Secret Annex. Voskuijl and his daughter discussed
26245-448: The symbol of the idealized Anne, which for me (...) is combined with always thinking about what has happened, what I witnessed. This great pain never leaves my heart." Bep kept in contact with Otto Frank even after his move to Switzerland and new marriage. Otto knew that Bep had troubles making ends meet and did his best to help her, too. He occasionally lent money to her. Bep also corresponded with Victor Kugler, who moved to Canada after
26426-455: The top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered an alpha world city . The city is the cultural capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters in the city. Many of the world's largest companies are based here or have established their European headquarters in the city, such as technology companies Uber , Netflix , and Tesla . In 2022, Amsterdam
26607-498: The total of 20,000 Gestapo men held SS ranks, and in most cases, these were honorary. One man who served in the Prussian Gestapo in 1933 recalled that most of his co-workers "were by no means all Nazis. For the most part they were young professional civil service officers..." The Nazis valued police competence more than politics, so in general in 1933, almost all of the men who served in the various state police forces under
26788-409: The war and had several German soldiers among her friends. She also had a relationship with an Austrian non-commissioned officer. According to Bertus Hulsman, Bep's former fiancé, who was interviewed by the authors, Nelly knew that her father and sister hid Jews. The authors underline that Karl Silberbauer , the SS man who arrested the people of the Secret Annex, later claimed that the infamous call to
26969-420: The war and other events of the 20th century, almost the entire city centre had fallen into disrepair. As society was changing, politicians and other influential figures made plans to redesign large parts of it. There was an increasing demand for office buildings, and also for new roads, as the automobile became available to most people. A metro started operating in 1977 between the new suburb of Bijlmermeer in
27150-464: The war. In 1978, she visited him and his wife Loes (Lucy) van Langen in Toronto . Bep Voskuijl died in Amsterdam on 6 May 1983, due to a traumatic aortic rupture . She was 63 years old. In an article in Dutch national newspaper De Telegraaf , Miep Gies was quoted, stating that "the special thing about Bep was that she was so humble. She was heroic without bravura, simply assumed that the hiders in
27331-500: The war: ‘ Mr Frank liked her, and so did I. Right away Bep and I were a good team and became friendly,'. Bep became close with Otto Frank's wife Edith Holländer and their daughters Margot and Anne . She also made friends with Miep Gies and got acquainted with Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman , all employees at Opekta who would later become protectors of the people in the Secret Annex. On Sunday 5 July 1942, Bep celebrated her 23rd birthday. The next day, when she went to work,
27512-505: The world . The Dutch capital is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, with about 180 nationalities represented. Immigration and ethnic segregation in Amsterdam is a current issue. Amsterdam's notable residents throughout its history include painters Rembrandt and Vincent van Gogh , 17th-century philosophers Baruch Spinoza , John Locke , René Descartes , and the Holocaust victim and diarist Anne Frank . Due to its geographical location in what used to be wet peatland ,
27693-779: The world outside the United Kingdom is found at the Begijnhof . Regular services there are still offered in English under the auspices of the Church of Scotland . Being Calvinists, the Huguenots soon integrated into the Dutch Reformed Church , though often retaining their own congregations. Some, commonly referred to by the moniker 'Walloon', are recognizable today as they offer occasional services in French. In
27874-400: The world's most famous. Its artistic heritage, canals and narrow canal houses with gabled façades , well-preserved legacies of the city's 17th-century Golden Age, have attracted millions of visitors annually. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange , founded in 1602, is considered the oldest "modern" securities market stock exchange in the world. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of
28055-436: Was 'protective detention' which facilitated the process in expediting dissenters to concentration camps and against which there was no legal defence . Early efforts to resist the Nazis with aid from abroad were hindered when the opposition's peace feelers to the Western Allies did not meet with success. This was partly because of the Venlo incident of 9 November 1939, in which SD and Gestapo agents, posing as anti-Nazis in
28236-420: Was a move in a years-long struggle for power in the area between the count of Holland and the Amstel family who governed the area on behalf of the bishop of Utrecht. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam . The bishop of Utrecht granted Amsterdam zone rights in either 1300 or 1306. The Mirakel van Amsterdam [ nl ] in 1345 rendered the city an important place of pilgrimage . During
28417-447: Was a prime example of panopticism . The Gestapo—at times—was overwhelmed with denunciations and most of its time was spent sorting out the credible from the less credible denunciations. Many of the local offices were understaffed and overworked, struggling with the paper load caused by so many denunciations. Gellately has also suggested that the Gestapo was "a reactive organisation...constructed within German society and whose functioning
28598-491: Was also a member of the Society of Suriname , an organisation founded to oversee the management of the Dutch colony of Surinam , which was economically dependent on slave plantations . On 1 July 2021, the mayor of Amsterdam , Femke Halsema , apologised for the city's involvement in the slave trade. Amsterdam's prosperity declined during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The wars of the Dutch Republic with England (latterly, Great Britain ) and France took their toll on
28779-424: Was around 50,000. During the 1660s, Amsterdam's population reached 200,000. The city's growth levelled off and the population stabilized around 240,000 for most of the 18th century. In 1750, Amsterdam was the fourth largest city in Western Europe , behind London (676,000), Paris (560,000) and Naples (324,000). This was all the more remarkable as Amsterdam was neither the capital city nor the seat of government of
28960-459: Was born in Amsterdam . She was one of the eight children of Johannes Voskuijl and Christina Sodenkamp. When still a teenager, Bep worked as a chambermaid, waitress and shop assistant in order to earn money to support the large Voskuijl family. In 1937, Bep enrolled in the Instituut Schoevers , the evening school for girls and women who wanted to learn secretarial work. Bep excelled at her courses in German, stenography and accounting. Soon after, she
29141-401: Was called, Schutzhaft —"protective custody", a euphemism for the power to imprison people without judicial proceedings. An oddity of the system was that the prisoner had to sign his own Schutzhaftbefehl , an order declaring that the person had requested imprisonment—presumably out of fear of personal harm. In addition, political prisoners throughout Germany—and from 1941, throughout
29322-421: Was completed in 2018. Since 2014, renewed focus has been given to urban regeneration and renewal, especially in areas directly bordering the city centre, such as Frederik Hendrikbuurt . This urban renewal and expansion of the traditional centre of the city—with the construction on artificial islands of the new eastern IJburg neighbourhood—is part of the Structural Vision Amsterdam 2040 initiative. Amsterdam
29503-481: Was concerned." The involvement of ordinary Germans in denunciations also needs to be put into perspective so as not to exonerate the Gestapo. As Evans makes clear, "...it was not the ordinary German people who engaged in surveillance , it was the Gestapo; nothing happened until the Gestapo received a denunciation, and it was the Gestapo's active pursuit of deviance and dissent that was the only thing that gave denunciations meaning." The Gestapo's effectiveness remained in
29684-649: Was dangerous since Gestapo informants and agents were widespread. However, a significant number of them still worked against the National Socialist government. In May 1935, the Gestapo broke up and arrested members of the "Markwitz Circle", a group of former socialists in contact with Otto Strasser , who sought Hitler's downfall. From the mid-1930s into the early 1940s—various groups made up of communists, idealists, working-class people, and far-right conservative opposition organisations covertly fought against Hitler's government, and several of them fomented plots that included Hitler's assassination. Nearly all of them, including:
29865-411: Was founded at the mouth of the Amstel River, which was dammed to control flooding. Originally a small fishing village in the 12th century, Amsterdam became a major world port during the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, when the Netherlands was an economic powerhouse. Amsterdam was the leading centre for finance and trade, as well as a hub of secular art production. In the 19th and 20th centuries,
30046-506: Was grateful when morning came, and I was able to get back to work." During the evening of her stay, Bep had become acquainted with Anne's talent for writing, when she was given a few stories to read that Anne had come up with. In a letter to Otto Frank, she later remembered: "I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I could not believe that Anne had written those words. I can still see Margot's face: 'Yes, Anne wrote these all by herself.' Then I thought, you've got to be older to be able to write such
30227-415: Was hired by Otto Frank as a secretary for his company, Opekta , based at 263 Prinsengracht , the address which would become the Frank family's hiding place . She was eighteen when she started working and was the youngest employee in the office. Later, her unemployed father, who had health problems, became the Opekta warehouse supervisor. Her colleague, fellow "helper" and friend, Miep Gies recalled after
30408-557: Was imprisoned in Dachau for having stated that there were good folk in England too; another suffered the same fate for warning a girl who wanted to marry an S.S. man after abjuring the Catholic faith; yet another because he conducted a service for a deceased communist". Others were arrested simply on the basis of being "suspected of activities hostile to the State" or that there was reason to "suppose that his dealings might harm society". Over 2,700 Catholic , Protestant , and Orthodox clergy were imprisoned at Dachau alone. After Heydrich (who
30589-421: Was in an unenviable position by the late spring and early summer of 1943. On one hand, it was next to impossible for them to overthrow Hitler and the party; on the other, the Allied demand for an unconditional surrender meant no opportunity for a compromise peace, which left the military and conservative aristocrats who opposed the regime no option (in their eyes) other than continuing the military struggle. Despite
30770-494: Was later executed) plan to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in Vienna represented a unique attempt to act aggressively against the Gestapo. Burian's group had also set up a secret courier service to Otto von Habsburg in Belgium. Individuals in Austrian resistance groups led by Heinrich Maier also managed to pass along the plans and the location of production facilities for V-1 , V-2 rockets , Tiger tanks , and aircraft ( Messerschmitt Bf 109 , Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet , etc.) to
30951-419: Was likewise viewed as unacceptable—deemed gender nonconformity—and a number of individual reports on lesbians can be found in Gestapo files. Between 1933 and 1935, some 4,000 men were arrested; between 1936 and 1939, another 30,000 men were convicted. If homosexuals showed any signs of sympathy to the Nazis' identified racial enemies, they were considered an even greater danger. According to Gestapo case files,
31132-411: Was menacing as more than 4.5 million men fell under his command once the militias and veterans organisations were absorbed by the SA, a fact which fuelled Röhm's aspirations; his dream of fusing the SA and Reichswehr together was undermining Hitler's relationships with the leadership of Germany's armed forces. Several Nazi chieftains, among them Göring, Joseph Goebbels, Rudolf Hess, and Himmler, began
31313-433: Was more the exception than the rule. The Gestapo office in Saarbrücken had 50 full-term informers in 1939. The District Office in Nuremberg , which had the responsibility for all of northern Bavaria , employed a total of 80–100 full-term informers between 1943 and 1945. The majority of Gestapo informers were not full-term employees working undercover, but were rather ordinary citizens who chose to denounce other people to
31494-408: Was no longer able to work for the company. On 15 June 1943, Anne Frank wrote in her diary: "It is a disaster for us that good old Voskuyl won't be able to keep us in touch with all that goes on, and all he hears in the warehouse. He was our best helper and security adviser; we miss him very much indeed." During the Gestapo raid, Bep managed to escape with a few documents which would have incriminated
31675-413: Was ranked the ninth-best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th on quality of living for environment and infrastructure by Mercer. The city was ranked 4th place globally as a top tech hub in 2019. The Port of Amsterdam is the fifth largest in Europe. The KLM hub and Amsterdam's main airport, Schiphol , is the busiest airport in the Netherlands , third in Europe , and 11th in
31856-467: Was staunchly anti-Catholic and anti-Christian) was assassinated in Prague, his successor, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, relaxed some of the policies and then disbanded Department IVB (religious opponents) of the Gestapo. Violence and arrest were not confined to that opposing political parties, membership in trade unions, or those with dissenting religious opinions, but also homosexuality. It was viewed negatively by Hitler. Homosexuals were correspondingly considered
32037-605: Was structurally dependent on the continuing co-operation of German citizens". After 1939, when many Gestapo personnel were called up for war-related work such as service with the Einsatzgruppen , the level of overwork and understaffing at the local offices increased. For information about what was happening in German society, the Gestapo continued to be mostly dependent upon denunciations. 80% of all Gestapo investigations were started in response to information provided by denunciations by ordinary Germans; while 10% were started in response to information provided by other branches of
32218-512: Was taken from the houses, apartments and other buildings of deported Jews. The city was finally liberated by Canadian forces on 5 May 1945, shortly before the end of the war in Europe. Many new suburbs, such as Osdorp , Slotervaart , Slotermeer and Geuzenveld , were built in the years after the Second World War. These suburbs contained many public parks and wide-open spaces, and the new buildings provided improved housing conditions with larger and brighter rooms, gardens, and balconies. Because of
32399-429: Was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe . The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organisation. On 20 April 1934, oversight of the Gestapo passed to the head of the Schutzstaffel (SS), Heinrich Himmler , who was also appointed Chief of German Police by Hitler in 1936. Instead of being exclusively
32580-535: Was to serve as the intelligence agency for the local Gestapo units. In the occupied territories, the formal relationship between local units of the Gestapo, criminal police, and SD was slightly closer. The Gestapo became known as RSHA Amt IV ("Department or Office IV") with Heinrich Müller as its chief. In January 1943, Himmler appointed Ernst Kaltenbrunner RSHA chief; almost seven months after Heydrich had been assassinated . The specific internal departments of Amt IV were as follows: In 1941 Referat N ,
32761-482: Was under the dual command of Referat N of the Gestapo and also his local SS and Police Leader . In total, there were some fifty-four regional Gestapo offices across the German federal states. The Gestapo also maintained offices at all Nazi concentration camps, held an office on the staff of the SS and Police Leaders, and supplied personnel as needed to formations such as the Einsatzgruppen . Personnel assigned to these auxiliary duties were often removed from
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