Rotterdam municipality to investigate its role in WWII Jewish persecution

Mayor Carola Schouten said an initial inventory shows the Rotterdam municipality was involved in the exclusion and dispossession of Jewish residents during the Second World War. A unanimously adopted motion on 29 January 2026 instructed the council to examine the city’s role in the persecution and deportation of Jewish Rotterdammers. A project group of municipal officials and the Rotterdam City Archive have compiled the inventory, concluding that the municipality participated in various ways.

On 22 June, Schouten met a delegation of the Jewish community in Rotterdam, which expressed a strong desire for an official apology and further research. The municipality will develop a plan outlining the next steps of investigation, which the council expects to receive by 1 November, together with information on how the motion will be acted upon.