As known, the horrors of the Second World War were accompanied by the greatest plunder in the history of the world. Confining ourselves to the Netherlands, we would have to conclude that the Jewish community was the most affected by German rapacity. Up to this day, there has been little research with respect to the actual dimensions of the Nazi theft in the Netherlands and the manner in which it was carried out. This is true to an even greater extent of the way the occupier converted his loot into cash.

My research has been conducted at various archives in the Netherlands as well as abroad and has been focused primarily on the looting of assets (stocks, bonds, and the like), which is not to say that the archival materials concerning the looting of precious gems and metals, books, stamp collections, life insurance policies, works of art etc. have been ignored, where I happened to come across them.

What stocks on the one hand and jewels and such on the other have in common is that they were confiscated by the same agency (Lippmann & Rosenthal & Co.). Jewish real estate and businesses were either liquidated, placed under "Verwaltung" (administration) or sold to third parties. During the years 1940-45 the Jewish community in Holland was robbed of approximately 700 million Hfl. Around half of this total (350 million Hfl.) consisted of securities, of which about 250 million Hfl. was eventually traded. (To convert to the present day value, multiply by a factor of 10.)

On the basis of "Verordnung" (Decree) 148/41, Jewish compatriots in August 1941 were forced to hand over their securities, cash and bank holdings to Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co. (hereafter LiRo), a bank in Amsterdam specifically created for this purpose, which then would turn over the proceeds to the "Vermögensverwaltungs- und Rentenanstalt" (VVRA, Office of Property Administration and Pensions), the German central institute that administered the enormous loot. The Germans deliberately used the name of an old established and renowned Jewish bank in order to make their victims believe that their possessions were safe in the vaults of this alleged Jewish banking house. All Dutch Jewish citizens were compelled to open an account with LiRo and to transfer their bank balances to this LiRo account under German supervision.

In May 1942, Decree 58/42 coerced the Jewish citizens to hand in their art objects, precious metals and jewels to LiRo. Apart from "Verordnungen", the Germans also used the "Devisenschutzkommandos" (Foreign Exchange Protection Commands) to seize Jewish assets. After the greatest part of Jewish stock holdings had been confiscated, the problem arose of how to sell the loot. The occupier was guilty of theft and the new owners could therefore be accused of receiving stolen goods.

The Allies and the Netherlands government in exile (in London) had already warned about this early on; the exiled Dutch government already as early as June 7th, 1940. In order, therefore, to circumvent accusations of receiving stolen goods, the securities were provided with a special so-called bona fide declaration (which was supposed to show that the original Jewish owner had 'voluntarily' parted with his assets), after which they were sold. The main channel through which the stocks were sold was the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Assets were also sold to the neutral countries and to Germany, whether or not within the framework of the so-called "Kapitalverflechtung" (capital interlocking).

The assets LiRo offered on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange went rapidly, in the beginning still with, but in a later phase also without, bona fide declarations. The buyers claimed not to know that the Jewish securities were stolen, but in fact it was well-known that the stock offerings from LiRo were 'tainted'. As extenuating circumstance, the members of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange cited the belief that since the expropriation of Jewish stocks was inevitable anyway, it had better take place in Holland rather than abroad, facilitating their eventual post-war recuperation.

Otto Rebholz, a former German citizen who became a naturalized Dutchman in 1932 and was owner of "Rebholz Bankierskantoor", has been portrayed as the worst collaborator among the collaborating stock brokers. The question arises if his colleagues have not singled out this banker of German origin as scapegoat. Of the 350 million Hfl. in Jewish stocks eventually sold for an amount of 250 million Hfl. approximately 30 million Hfl. can be charged to Rebholz. The 100 million difference was used on behalf of the Jews, either to pay off their outstanding debts, or for their 'maintenance' (approximately 25 million Hfl. for the construction and operations of the concentration/transit camps in Westerbork and Vught), or through the return of unsold stocks. Another part was used to cover the costs of agencies such as LiRo and VVRA. In sum, approximately 222 million Hfl. was not traded via Rebholz.

From 1942, Rebholz converted the Swiss, French and Portuguese stocks deposited with LiRo into cash. The foreign exchange thus acquired (in France the settlement was in part in Portuguese escudos) was for the most part used to purchase the raw materials necessary for conducting the war. Escudos were important because Germany obtained important raw materials and goods from Portugal.

Prompted by A. Bühler, the German "Beauftragte" (Commissioner) at the "Nederlandsche Bank" (Central Bank of the Netherlands), Rebholz began his sales activities in Switzerland at the end of March 1943. When the British and Americans got wind of these transactions through their respective embassies in Bern and threatened the banks with placing them on the feared 'black list', these activities ceased in some cases but in others were again camouflaged or removed to Liechtenstein.

There were also occasions on which German banking establishments sold the stocks obtained from LiRo to Portugal via Switzerland or directly to the Swiss. Another part of the LiRo stocks found their way to Portugal and Spain. Moreover, through Bühler millions in securities were made available to various agencies and war industries in the Third Reich whose activities created a special need for foreign exchange. In September 1944 Bühler had the valuable remainder of foreign stocks that had not yet been sold - worth around Hfl. 12,000,000 - shipped to Berlin. The Germans still managed to trade a small part thereof, the rest was probably seized by the Soviets and sold.

The sale of stolen Jewish stocks to other countries continued even after the liberation. These concerned paper assets which had been illegally acquired during the war, by way of the black market or without bona fide declarations. Before the stock registration became law (in the interest of recuperation, all stocks present in the Netherlands had to be reported), all these assets had to be transferred to foreign countries where the registration regulations were considerably less stringent.

The post-war restoration of rights, carried out by the various institutions of the Council for Rehabilitation ("Raad voor het Rechtsherstel") has been a long, laborious and often painful process. The plunder institutes (LiRo, VVRA etc.) had to be liquidated and the goods, shares, objects of art, jewellery etc. had to be returned to their rightful owners. But about 75 percent of the Dutch Jews (ca 107,000 persons) had perished in the Nazi death camps and complete families never returned. Moreover, the exact dates of death were in most cases unknown. Consequently death certificates (the laws with respect to transfer of property by inheritance requested such certificates) could not be issued. A special law of 1949 solved that problem.

All those problems, added to the fact that large parts of the administration of LiRo and other looting institutions had been destroyed or simply were missing, have made the restoration of rights an extremely difficult matter. It became even more complicated because LiRo since 1943, assuming that their 'clients' would never return, had cancelled all private accounts and put them together on one collective account ("Sammelkonto").

The Securities Registration Department of the Rehabilitation Council was abolished only in October 1971. Many victims of the Holocaust have been dissatisfied with the postwar restoration of rights. My study, that will comprehend both the looting and the postwar restoration of right of the Netherlands Jews, hopes also to give an answer to the question in how far that feeling of dissatisfaction was justified.

The research for my book is carried out under the wings of the Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation ("Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie", RIOD). The institute houses various archives and a library (including visual material) about the Second World War and its run-up and aftermath.

Gerard Aalders,
Department of Research, The Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation, Amsterdam