91 LIBERATION TIMELINE 1940 29 MAY Arthur Seyss-Inquart is appointed Reichskommissar of the occupied Netherlands. Charged with administration of the country, Seyss-Inquart reports directly to Hitler. The country’s “long dark night” begins. Dutch civilians subjected to forced labour. All Dutch men between 18 and 45 are required to work for the Reich. By 1945, more than 500,000 Dutch work as forced labour with about half of them relocated in Germany. Shortly after his appointment, Seyss-Inquart, an ardent Nazi and anti-Semite took measures to remove Jews from the government, the press and industry. Anti-Jewish measures intensified after 1941 with approximately 140,000 Dutch Jews were registered. Initially a Jewish “ghetto” is created in Amsterdam and a transit camp was set up at Westerbork. Later, Dutch Jews are sent to Buchenwald, Mauthausen, and Auschwitz. Of the 140,000 Dutch Jews that registered in 1940, only 30,000 survived the war.
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