Ondergang: de vervolging en verdelging van het Nederlandse Jodendom, 1940-1945

by Jacob Presser

2 delen, 1090 p., 112 p. foto's.

Genres: Holocaust, History, World War II, Nonfiction

1090 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Jacob (Jacques) Presser was a Dutch historian, writer and poet, known for his book Ashes in the wind (The destruction of the Dutch Jews) on the history of the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands during World War II. Presser made a significant contribution to Dutch historical scholarship, as well as to European historical scholarship.

Presser was born in the former Jewish quarter of Amsterdam. He attended the University of Amsterdam after finishing a commercial vocational college and having worked in an office for two years. At the University he studied history, art history, and Dutch. He graduated cum laude in 1926.

In 1950, Presser received a commission from the Dutch government to produce a study about the fate of the Dutch Jews during the war. This would later become his historical masterpiece Ondergang [The destruction of the Dutch Jews]. He worked on this project for fifteen years, making full use of the vast archives of the Dutch Institute for War Documentation. The resulting work was a big best-seller in the Netherlands when it was published in 1965. It still is the main reference work on the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands under German occupation.

Besides historical work, Presser also wrote works of literature. His book The Night of the Girondists, based on his war time experiences, received literary prizes, and became an international best-seller.

Reviews

[Martijn ter Haar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Merkwaardig geschreven boek: gortdroge passages over transporten worden afgewisseld met gedichten, de toon gaat van heel beschouwend naar heel persoonlijk en Presser wordt af en toe cynisch. Vanuit wetenschappelijk historisch perspectief kan je er van alles tegenin brengen, maar de aparte stijl van Presser geeft het wel iets heel eigens, dat ook wel lekker leest.

Ook veel geleerd, vooral over de fascinerende toestanden rond de Joodse Raad.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its wonderfully written and shows the slow destruction of the Dutch Jewry, but I couldn't finish it

I would recommend the "Testing Human Bonds Within Nations: Jews in the Occupied Netherlands" which cites Presser
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2150408?...

It's also full of the incomprehensible and the inhuman

- the Nazis decided to kill all foundlings because some might be Jewish
- Jewish typists were hired to do the administration and then sent on the last trains
- "As Herzberg observed "always creating the illusion that the worst had been reached, always causing disenchantment because things become even worse; yet even with each disenchantment ...[the Nazis] were able to bring about a new illusions that the end of the measure had been reached" The Germans also used intricate systems of divide-and-rule against the Jews as well as the by-standers, in addition to simple trickery and deceit"
- "The Dutch- Jewish catastrophe was in part a consequence of the interactions among efficient and ruthless German implementers on the one hand and indifferent, if not cooperative, Dutch bystanders on the other, including government officials as well as the general public

[Leonardo]

La flamante imagen de la Holanda del periodo bélico — donde se creía que casi todo el mundo había «resistido» y hecho lo posible para obstaculizar los planes alemanes— se había abordado y desacreditado un poco antes, y por propia iniciativa. A mediados de los sesenta, historias enciclopédicas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial proporcionaron copiosa información acerca de la experiencia de Holanda durante la guerra, incluyendo las deportaciones, pero evitando deliberadamente, en concreto, tratar en detalle el quién, el cómo y el por qué de la catástrofe judía. En cualquier caso, casi nadie las leyó. Sin embargo, en abril de 1965 el historiador holandés Jacob Presser publicó Ondergang, el primer libro dedicado íntegramente al exterminio de los judíos holandeses, que vendió cien mil ejemplares sólo en 1965 y suscitó una oleada de interés popular por el asunto.

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