On 3 February, on the orders of the Nazis, the Dutch authorities announced that all Jews must register with their municipality as Jews or 'bastard Jews'. This information was added to their personal data in the population register. To make their cards easier to retrieve, a tab was added to each card with either a ‘J’ or a ‘B’. Every registered Jew received a certificate of registration to take home. The municipalities forwarded the registrations to the national population register in The Hague.
The Jews had no idea of what lay ahead. And so, almost all of them did what they were told to do. In August 1941, the numbers were added up: 140,552 Jews, 14,549 Half-Jews and 5,719 Quarter-Jews. 160,820 registrations in all.
This was how the Nazis got a hold on the Jews in the Netherlands. The SS officer responsible for the programme was Friedrich Wimmer, who described it as follows: ‘This will ensure the rapid handling of any possible changes, such as relocations.’ (‘Der enge organisatorische Anschluss des Zentralregisters an die Bevolkingsboekhouding (Bevölkerungsbuchhaltung) in den Niederlanden sichert eine schnelle Erfassung aller eintretenden Änderungen (z.B. Wohnungsänderungen)’)
The registration made it possible to remove Jews from the Netherlands. In April 1941, the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung (Central Office for Jewish Emigration) was established for this purpose.
