After the war, the National Assembly asked the Dutch government to reimburse the transportation costs of Jews returning from concentration camps. This is evidenced in a letter published in the National Archives in The Hague.
The railway company, which also transported many Jews to the national border during the war on behalf of the German occupier, referred in a letter to a resolution from 1944. It stated that the government would pay the costs of the return of Jews to the Netherlands.
The head of the National Assembly’s Commercial Department announced that on July 25, 1945, 395 Jews arrived by additional train from Basel in Switzerland, where they had previously been received. In the following days, 326 of them traveled to Nijmegen, and the rest were transported by bus.
Initially, the National Assembly requested compensation from the Jewish Coordination Committee, which was involved in receiving Jews returning after the war. That organization referred the National Assembly to the government. The letter from the railway company is addressed to the Ministry of Social Affairs.
“We would like to hear from you if we can charge you for the above mentioned transfer,” the NS president wrote. Then the relevant Minister of Social Affairs sent the letter to the head of the military body, because he probably had to pay the amount.
NS paid compensation for transportation during World War II
The National Archives annually opens files whose retention period has expired. That’s why the letter is now public.
The released file contains all kinds of documents issued by the repatriation mission in Bern, which was searching for “displaced persons” of Dutch origin. The mission registered these people and then tried to arrange their transfer to the Netherlands.
First-time returnees are often received in camps. There were also repatriation missions in other countries.
The railway company has previously apologized
NS remained a railway carrier in the Netherlands during World War II. On behalf of the German occupier, the company transported more than 100,000 Jews to the national border, where concentration and extermination camps were their final destination. NS also made money from this.
The company apologized in 2005. In 2018, the National Assembly announced that it would pay compensation to survivors and immediate relatives of people deported to concentration and extermination camps.
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