This post is aimed at those who feel uncomfortable with Communists and Socialists leading the protests
against Bush’s War.
Amsterdam, 25 february, 1941. It had been almost a year since the Nazis had invaded and occupied The Netherlands. It would be almost a year before the USA entered the war. Officially Germany and the USSR were still allies. On the other side of the North sea was the only free fighting country in Europe, still fighting for survival. Tthe Jewish population of occupied Europe started to suspect the ultimate fate the Nazis and their cronies would have in store for them. Just two days before, the first large scale razzias had been held in the traditionally Jewish neighbourhoods of Amsterdam. Tensions were high. Already there had been sporadic resistance against the Jewbaiting practised by the occupier and their Dutch collaborators. Members of the Dutch nazi party, the NSB had been beaten up when they attempted to molest Jews. The razzias had been revenge for this.
But Amsterdam was never a city to cower in the face of brutality. Nor did it this time. On 25 februari, exactly 62 years ago, a general strike broke out in the city, to support its Jewish inhabitants. All trams stopped; those who did attempt to ride were pelted with stones and chased back to their garages. Other council services also striked and Amsterdam workers took to the streets, chasing the German ordnungspolizie out of the city. The strike went beyond the Amsterdam borders, to other parts of the province of Noord-Holland. For a moment it seemed it would be succesful and then the Nazis struck back, mercilessly. Several of the organisers and participants were arrested, tortured and killed.
Who they were? They were Communist. It was the Dutch Communist Party who started the strike, who were amongst the first to go into resistance against the occupiers and many of whom paid the ultimate price for it.
Today we remember them and all those others who fought beside them against the Nazi oppression during those late february days in 1941.
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