After the Germans occupied the Netherlands in May 1940, Jews were deprived of their rights, robbed of their possessions, and often incarcerated in assembly camps. At first there were no protests by the rest of the population. When German regular police arrested 425 Jewish men in February of 1941, however, there were mass protests. Communists called for a strike in solidarity. On February 25 and 26, tens of thousands of employees of the public transport system, municipal sanitation department, and the port authority, as well as students and office workers, went on strike in Amsterdam. Public life largely came to a halt. The strike spread to other cities. The commander of the German army declared a state of war against North Holland and ended the strike with force after two days. Forty people were injured and nine killed.
The writer and journalist Zofia Kossak led the Catholic underground organization Front for the Rebirth of Poland (Front Odrodzenia Polski). When Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto were deported to Treblinka extermination camp during the summer of 1942, Kossak drew up a flyer calling for protest. A short time later she founded an aid organization together with the Socialist Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz, which later became the Polish underground organization Żegota (Council to Aid Jews). Kossak often wrote for the underground press and helped Jews in hiding. She was arrested in September of 1943 during an ID check because she had numerous underground newspapers on her person. Kossak was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp and later interned in the Pawiak prison in Warsaw and sentenced to death. Friends who had also participated in resistance actions were able to get her freed in July 1944 through bribery.
“The entire world watches these crimes, the worst in history, and remains silent. The slaughter of millions of defenseless people is met with a universal, portentous silence. … Whoever remains silent in the face of murder becomes an accomplice to that murder. Whoever does not condemn, consents. … Whoever is not with us in this protest is not a Catholic.”
Excerpt from the “Protest” flyer by Zofia Kossak, August 11, 1942
As of March 1941, Bulgaria was allied with Germany. Even earlier, there were anti-Jewish laws in Bulgaria. The Holy Synod, the highest institution of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, sent several letters of protest to the Bulgarian czar and to members of the government and the parliament. Some clerics spoke out vehemently in their sermons against the persecution of the Jews, and they continued to baptize Jews in order to protect them, although this practice was illegal. The church protests played an important role in keeping the Bulgarian Jews from being deported. However, the Bulgarian government turned more than 11,000 Jews from the territories occupied by Bulgaria over to the German Reich in March 1943. They were murdered in Treblinka extermination camp.
“Christians of Jewish origin and Jews in general should not be denied their elementary rights as human beings and citizens or their right to live in the country and work for a decent human existence.”
Excerpt from the petition of the Holy Synod to the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Denominations, April 5, 1943
Jews in France had to start wearing the yellow star as of June 1942. In protest against this discriminatory marking, numerous young Gentiles also attached stars to their clothing. Instead of the word Juif (“Jew”), they included various signs of protest or their initials. French and German police arrested many of the young people. Some of them were interned in the Drancy camp for several weeks. The harsh treatment was supposed to act as a deterrent, preventing copycat actions.
