Reis van de Razzia

Een Oral History Project Over de razzia van Rotterdam

Abstract

On the 10th and 11th of November 1944, a mass arrest or razzia took place in the Rotterdam area. More than 52.000 residents of Rotterdam and Schiedam between the ages of 17 and 40 were deported by the German occupation troops to perform forced labour, also called the ‘Arbeitseinsatz’. The project ‘Reis van de Razzia [Road of the Razzia]’ was started because the nature and extent of this event are relatively unknown to the current residents. For this project, 76 interviews with witnesses were conducted. These interviews give insight into what happened and what remains of an individual’s freedom to act in an oppressed society. To this end, attention was paid not only to the experiences of those who were taken away, but also to the experiences of their family members and to the perceptions those who remained in this threatening situation had of each other. The report of the Den Drijver brothers was chosen as an example. The combination of their differing experiences sheds light on the dillemmas such circumstances create.