In mid-August, 1942, the local German authorities had agreed to deport stateless Jews (for example Germans) before native Jews. Also at around mid-August, the head of Department for Jewish Affairs in the Netherlands, Wilhelm Zöpf, summoned the Commander of Security Police and Security Service in Amsterdam, Willy Lages, and the head of the Zentralstelle, Ferdinand aus der Fünten. On behalf of Harster, Zöpf ordered the arrest and removal of the Jews directly from their homes by SIPO and Zentralstellen personnel. At the same time, sensing what the Germans had in store for them, the Jews were less inclined to cooperate and show up at the assembly points or train stations for the so called ‘Arbeitseinsatz’ in Germany (lit. work assignment; Nazi euphemism for deportation). Zöpf's order was implemented first on the night of September 1. The Amsterdam Police Battalion, under the command of Amsterdam Police Chief Sybren Tulp, introduced a new method for meeting the quota of deportees required by the RSHA. So far Jews had been summoned by means of written notifications. However, from this date on Jews were rounded up in their homes in the evenings during curfew hours. The police received lists with addresses that the Zentralstelle had passed on to the stations and that were based on the files kept by the Jewish Council.
On September 2, a list of permitted provisions for the deportation was published in "Het Joodsche Weekblad" (the Jewish Weekly), the only Jewish newspaper permitted in the Netherlands, published by the Joodse Raad. These included items such as a suitcase, working shoes, a food bowl, food supplies for three days, etc. which helped to camouflage the deportation as a labour assignment. In light of the massive round ups of Jews and upon the request of Tulp, Rauter asked his institution in a memo dated September 17 to supply 10,000 liters of petrol per month to the Amsterdam police on a regular basis.
During September the German authorities introduced a system of exemption stamps, the ‘Sperren’, which allowed for the postponement of deportation in certain circumstances. Among those eligible for exemption were those considered useful to the Germans such as the staff of the Joodse Raad, or Jews with certain foreign citizenship who could later be exchanged for German nationals. Others included people whose Jewish status was unclear to the Nazis, such as the Portuguese (Sephardi) Jews, Jews who had converted to Christianity, Jews married to non-Jewish partners, and people who worked in the armament or diamond industries....
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NIOD, AMSTERDAM 250i port.14 map6 C(64)312.1 copy YVA M.68 / להזמנת התיק ראו קוד מיקרופילם
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