NS pays nearly 40 million in compensation for war transports Inland

Over 6,000 applications were assessed in total. About a thousand applications were not awarded because the conditions could not be met with the application. The amount to be paid out has so far been EUR 38 million. Of the applications allocated, 700 come from direct victims, over 3,850 from victims’ children and over 200 from widows or widowers.

At the time, on behalf of the German occupying forces, the Dutch Railways transported more than a hundred thousand Jews, Sinti and Roma from the Netherlands to the country’s borders, with the final destination being concentration or extermination camps. This made money. In 2005, the Dutch Railways apologized for the transports, but did not grant financial compensation.

After many conversations with surviving relatives, in particular Holocaust survivor Salo Muller, the NS decided in 2018 to pay benefits. The Committee on Individual Allowance for Victims of WWII Transports NS advised the NS last year about the best way to implement this. Since August 5, 2019, an application can be made up to one year after the date.

The NS has now given concrete form to another advice, the committee reports. For example, NIOD has been asked to start a preliminary investigation into the role of the NS during the Second World War, focusing on transports.

It was previously known that the NS, as a collective recognition for victims who are not eligible for compensation, gives 5 million euros to the memorial centers Kamp Westerbork, Kamp Vught, Kamp Amersfoort and the Oranjehotel. By this group of victims meant victims who did not survive the Second World War and left no surviving relatives, but also resistance fighters, political prisoners and forced laborers. The money will go to “education for young people, with a particular focus on discrimination including anti-Semitism to this day.”

–