February strike

It was organized by the outlawed Communist Party of the Netherlands in defence of persecuted Dutch Jews and against the anti-Jewish measures and the activities of Nazism in general.

In November 1940 all Jews were removed from public positions, including universities, which led directly to student protests in Leiden and elsewhere.

As tensions rose, the Dutch Nazi party Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging and its militant arm, the WA (Weerbaarheidsafdeling), were involved in a series of provocations in Jewish neighbourhoods in Amsterdam.

Revenge came in the weekend of 22–23 February, when a large-scale pogrom was undertaken by the Germans in which 425 Jewish men of age 20–35 were taken hostage and imprisoned in Kamp Schoorl and eventually sent to the Buchenwald and Mauthausen concentration camps, where most of them had died within a year.

The Communist Party of the Netherlands, which was made illegal by the Germans, printed and spread a call to strike throughout the city the next morning.

[5] The strike grew spontaneously as other workers followed the example of the tram drivers, and spread to other areas, including Zaanstad and Kennemerland in the west; Bussum, Hilversum and Utrecht in the east; and in the south.

Four strikers were later executed by firing squad, 22 sentenced to prison, and the city was ordered to pay five million guilders in restitution.

[citation needed] In 2010, the Israeli Holocaust museum Yad Vashem collectively awarded the strikers the title Righteous Among the Nations.