This Day in History

Feb. 25, 1941: General Strike in Amsterdam

Time Periods: 1920
Themes: Organizing, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, World History/Global Studies
Anti-Nazi Strike Amsterdam

Anti-Nazi Strike in Amsterdam. Source: Dutch National Archive.

On Feb. 25, 1941, a general strike was called in Amsterdam to protest Nazi persecution of Jews under the German Nazi occupation.

The previous weekend, 425 Jewish men and boys had been imprisoned. Truck drivers, dock and metal workers, civil servants, and factory employees — Christians, Liberals, Social Democrats, and Communists — answered the call and brought the city to a standstill.

The work stoppages spread to Zaanstreek, Kennemerland, and Utrecht. Two days later the strike was called off: nine people were dead, 50 injured and another 200 arrested, some of whom were to die in the concentration camps. There is now a Dock Worker Monument in the old Jewish quarter to commemorate this event.