| dc.description.abstract | The depiction of Switzerland as a safe haven in the historiography about so-called Jewish self-help during the Second World War has been a main cause of the lack of scholarly interest in Jewish organizations that in Switzerland tried to help fellow Jews. A good example is the Joodse Coördinatie Commissie (JCC). This Jewish organization was created by Dutch Jewish refugees Max Gans, Siegfried Isaac, and Salomon Troostwijk on January 20, 1944. Samuel Van Dantzig was included as a member in March 1944. Between January 1944 and June 1945, the JCC tried to help suffering Dutch Jews via Switzerland. Only Jacques Presser, Lou de Jong, and Katja Happe have studied this Jewish aid organization in detail. In their research about the JCC, they mainly focus on Gans and his difficult relationship with the Dutch authorities in Switzerland and London. Leaving a lack of research into Isaac, Van Dantzig, and Troostwijk.
All three historians have used the JCC as a case study within the Dutch historiography about the role of the Dutch government in exile in the Holocaust. In this debate, these three historians indicate that the Dutch government did too little to help Dutch deported Jews. Presser, Happe, and De Jong use the JCC as an example of this lack of government support toward the Jews during WW2. With this focus on the JCC as a case study, the source material used in the previous research into this organization has been limited. Presser, Happe, and De Jong mainly cite sources that show the problematic relationship between Max Gans and Dutch officials working for the Dutch government in exile or the Dutch embassy in Bern. Due to this limited and specific usage of sources, with a particular focus on the quarrel between Max Gans and the Dutch government, the dynamics and cooperation between the four members of the JCC are not researched by Happe, Presser, and De Jong. A new analysis of the JCC, with attention or the internal dynamics in the JCC, and the cooperation between its four members, is necessary.
I have operated this new research into the internal dynamics, and cooperation of the JCC members by answering the following question: What factors influenced the internal cooperation in the Joodse Coördinatie Commissie between committee members Gans, Isaac, Troostwijk, and Van Dantzig, between January 20, 1944, and April 1945? I have chosen this period because on January 20, 1944, the JCC was created, and in April 1945, committee members Troostwijk and Isaac were no longer part of the JCC. I have answered my research question with the use of three dimensions.
These three dimensions narrate the different factors that influenced the workings of the JCC and its members. The belief dimension is set in the minds of the four members and entails their ideas related to the help towards Dutch Jews and cooperation with authorities. These ideas were already formed before the escape of the JCC members to Switzerland. The circumstance dimension refers to the space around the members and the JCC itself, and entails what Gans, Isaac, Troostwijk, and Van Dantzig faced during the JCC’s existence, such as the Swiss dealing with Jewish refugees during the Second World War. The social dimension entails the social contacts of the JCC members, such as friends and family, and how these contacts influenced their work as commission members and the functioning of the JCC itself.
In the first chapter, I describe the lives of the four JCC members before this organization was created in January 1944. This chapter provides insights needed for understanding the believe systems of the four protagonists and a background to their social networks and ties. The focus is on roles and experiences before arrival in Switzerland and pre-existing social contacts: what similarities and differences can we discern between the four men? Chapters 2 and 3 deal with the period after arrival | |
