Five Brothers and a War

Razzias

When she was arrested in Amsterdam in 1943, she gained her freedom by agreeing to collaborate with the Germans, to the point that she even sold out her own brother and his family. She betrayed more than 100 people and was executed by firing squad in 1948 for her misdeeds.

Razzias had several purposes. First, they were used to round up Jews to be shipped off to concentration camps. Secondly, razzias were used as a means of punishing, controlling or even terrorizing the citizenry. Thirdly, and very importantly, they were used as a means of removing able-bodied males who would be the likely members of a Dutch resistance movement, thereby eliminating one very large source of potential German enemies as the Allies were gaining footholds throughout Holland. This was a specific tactic employed after the strikes that followed Dolle Dinsdag . Finally, though not in terms of German prioritization, they were used to round up civilians to be used essentially as slave labor in German factories—usually munitions factories. The Germans used various methods for recruiting people for forced labor. When recruiting volunteers by means of a propaganda campaign did not yield enough workers, companies were combed out and “replaceable” employees were sent to Germany. Later on the Germans even drafted entire age groups into service and developed new methods to register men who had a job. Finally, they used round ups on a large scale—razzias of cities.

nazi germany

Five Brothers and a War

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