Nazi Looting The Plunder of Dutch Jewry during the Second World War

The Nazi looting machine was notoriously efficient. In the Netherlands, 8.5 million citizens suffered losses estimated at 3.6 billion guilders. Approximately one-third of these losses were borne by Jews, who comprised only 1.6% of the total population. In today's terms, the German occupiers stripped the Jewish population of assets worth $7 billion. Nazi Looting offers a comprehensive history of the Dutch experience and demonstrates the ruthless efficiency of the Germans in robbing Dutch Jewry, for example attempts at "legitimacy" via fake bank accounts and phoney "sales". It also reveals how reputable indigenous institutions, including the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, insurance brokers and established banks acted as willing collaborators. More than fifty years after the war's end, 20% of the Netherlands' most important pre-war museum exhibits and approximately 80% of the less important works remain untraced. Painstakingly researched, Nazi Looting exposes a chillingly calculating and brutally destructive process that reverberates to this day.

Gerard Aalders is Senior Researcher, Netherlands Institute for War Documentation.