On 25 February 2016 the seventy-fifth anniversary of the February Strike will be commemorated in front of the synagogue and the Dokwerker [Dockworker] Monument in Amsterdam. Exactly seventy-five years ago, on 25 February 1941, a general strike broke out in Amsterdam in protest at the German occupation and persecution of the Jews. It was commemorated for the first time in 1946, and then in every subsequent year. During the ensuing Cold War, these annual commemorations formed historical events of their own, constituting a fascinating episode in postwar Dutch history. The archives and collections of those involved can be found at the IISH.
The first commemoration in 1946 was attended by 50,000 people, and the Mayor of Amsterdam gave an address:
“Never before in history has a strike been held to protest against a pogrom, and certainly not in an occupied country. Amsterdam did exactly that.”
His words still hold true. It is an established truth, too, that the strike was organized by various echelons and individuals in or close to the Dutch Communist Party (CPN). And this is precisely the problem that dominated dozens of postwar commemorations.
In the eyes of non-communists, the commemoration was a sort of propaganda show for the CPN. They were keen on playing down the role of communists in the actual strike. The CPN responded by pointing out that these groups played little of any role in the Dutch resistance movement. Until well into the twenty-first century, the committee organizing the commemoration comprised communists and communist sympathizers. They chose to link all kinds of political demands and grievances to the commemoration, which was grist to the mill of anti-communists.
In the midst of this postwar political turmoil, the initial purpose of the February Strike tended to be forgotten, namely to end the persecution of the Jews. The sorrowful fact that the strike did not, in fact, help the Jews was mentioned hardly at all. Instead, it was the heroism of the workers, aptly represented in the Dockworker Monument, that was celebrated. The February Strike did not particularly fire Jewish imagination, and some Jews even wondered what the monument was doing in Amsterdam’s Jewish quarter.
Beginning in 1950, as the Cold War reached its zenith, it became customary to hold two commemorations on the same day. In the morning representatives of the municipality gathered, in the afternoon the communists assembled. After a time, an internal strife among the communists led to further separate commemorations: there were four in 1960. It was not until 1966 that a single, unified commemoration became the norm, thanks to the local politicians Ed van Thijn (Labour) and Harry Verheij (CPN).
Today, the tendency to link the commemoration to contemporary events persists. But in recent years the tone has shifted from prevailing political issues to matters of conscience. The theme refugees and asylum seekers covers both.
More: https://socialhistory.org/en/collections/memoriam-february-strike