History of the Jews in the Netherlands
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The history of the Jews in the Netherlands is considered to begin largely in the 16th century, when they began to settle in Amsterdam and other cities. It has continued to the present. Following the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany in May 1940, the Jewish community was severely persecuted. 70% of its members died in the Holocaust during World War II.
The area now known as the Netherlands was once part of the Spanish Empire but in 1581, the northern Dutch provinces declared independence. A principal motive was a wish to practice Protestant Christianity, then forbidden under Spanish rule. Religious tolerance was effectively an important constitutional element of the newly independent state. This inevitably attracted the attention of Jews, who were religiously oppressed in many parts of the world, and many migrated to and settled in the Netherlands. They flourished there.
During the German Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, 70 percent of the Jewish population of the Netherlands was killed during the Holocaust, which included deportation to concentration and extermination camps.