Amsterdam’s mayor apologises for city’s role in the Holocaust

Mayor Femke Halsema said the Amsterdam government ‘was not heroic’. Picture: Bart Maat/Pool Photo via AP

The mayor of Amsterdam has apologised for the role the Dutch capital played in the persecution of its Jewish citizens during the Second World War, saying the government at the time “let its Jewish residents down terribly”.

Speaking at an event marking Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, Mayor Femke Halsema said that civil servants in Amsterdam played an active role in the murder of thousands of Jewish citizens of the city.