Language:
English
Year of publication:
2015
Titel der Quelle:
Yad Vashem Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
43,1 (2015) 77-111
Keywords:
Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews History 20th century
;
World War, 1939-1945 Deportations from Netherlands
;
Jewish ghettos
Abstract:
Addressing the "Dutch paradox" of the Holocaust - that the Dutch Jews had a strikingly low survival rate in the Nazi camps, examines the situation and behavior of Dutch Jews in Theresienstadt, to which 4,887 of them were deported from the Netherlands. Argues that the high mortality rate of Dutch Jews in Theresienstadt and in the camps can be explained by their specific strategy of adaptation rather than by their religious or class background. The behavior of the Dutch Jews fits the mode of adaptation which Erving Goffman called regression, or retreat into the self. This behavior was characterized by distancing themselves from others, retreating into isolation, and manifesting an inability or unwillingness to work. This kind of behavior was conditioned by contemporary Dutch culture and the "pillarization" ("verzuiling") of Dutch society. Dutch Jews had been less integrated in society than Jews in other Western and Central European countries, and they continued this pattern in Theresienstadt. The "pillarization" preconditioned the high mortality rate of Dutch Jews in the camps, just as it did the disproportionally high mortality rate of Dutch non-Jews in concentration and labor camps.
Note:
In English and Hebrew.
URL:
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