Netherlands commemorates 75th anniversary of WWII February Strike

Dutch King Willem-Alexander on Thursday attended an official memorial ceremony to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the February Strike here.

Public transport in the capital halted for one minute in the morning to commemorate the first large-scale protest action against the persecution of the Jewish people in Europe during World War II.

A memorial was held on a square near a statue called "The Dockworker," where Jewish men were rounded up in the weekend before the strike.

The Dutch king accompanied those who took part in the strike as they laid the first wreath next to the statue.

"The strike can make this city proud, but only if the fate of the Jews is not forgotten to this day," Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan said in a public address.

On Feb. 25, 1941, tens of thousands of Amsterdam residents stopped working, as a protest against the persecution of Jewish people in the Netherlands.

Raids in the Jewish quarter of the city during the weekend of Feb. 22-23 that year prompted the protest, which would become known as the first mass protest against the Nazi persecution of the Jewish people in Europe.

The strikes started with public transport stopping service, followed by municipal services, offices, shipyards, clothing factories and metal companies shutting down.

The Nazis ended the strike with an iron fist and numerous strikers were imprisoned, after which some of them were shot dead. Endit