Eighty years after the end of the Holocaust, the mayor of Amsterdam has apologized for the crucial role the city鈥檚 administration played in the mass deportation of Dutch Jews to Auschwitz. Do such apologies serve any purpose? And has the current mayor genuinely learned the lessons of the Nazi genocide?

In July 1942, the German occupation authorities began the mass deportation of Amsterdam鈥檚 Jews to the death camps. The municipal administration, including the police and railway workers, actively collaborated.听

City officials also participated in the later hunts for Jews who were hiding in attics and elsewhere, including Anne Frank and her family. Altogether, at least 80% of Holland鈥檚 75,000 Jews were murdered, which was the highest rate for any German-occupied country in Western Europe.

In a recent speech marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Mayor Femke Halsema acknowledged that her predecessors 鈥渉orribly abandoned [the city鈥檚] 91传媒 residents.鈥� She said 鈥淎msterdam鈥檚 government was, when it mattered, not heroic, not determined and not merciful.鈥�

Mayor Halsema noted, 鈥淎dministrators and officials were not only cold and formalistic, but even willing to cooperate with the occupier. That was an indispensable step in the isolation, humiliation, deportation, dehumanization and murdering of 60,000 Amsterdam Jews.鈥�

Five years ago, Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte also apologized for his country鈥檚 abandonment of the Jews. 鈥淲ith the last remaining survivors among us, I apologize on behalf of the government for the actions of the government at the time,鈥� Rutte said.

Public apologies of this sort have a certain symbolic value, since they represent a belated but necessary acknowledgment of historical truth. Moreover, apologies can help set a society鈥檚 moral parameters and thus influence future behavior in times of crisis.

Whether or not the current mayor has truly learned from the mistakes of the past is another question.听

In her speech last month, Mayor Halsema said, 鈥淎ntisemitism wasn鈥檛 brought to the Netherlands by the German occupier, and it didn鈥檛 disappear after the liberation. There has always been hatred against Jews鈥攁lso in this town鈥攁nd there still is.鈥�

All true, but how did Mayor Halsema herself respond when antisemitic mob violence erupted in her city? On November 7, 2024, more than one hundred masked Muslim extremists carried out coordinated attacks on Israeli Jews who had attended an Amsterdam soccer match. According to the Amsterdam police, the violence was coordinated through social media posts in which mob leaders directed their followers to 鈥渉unt Jews.鈥�

The Israeli victims were 鈥渁mbushed by gangs of masked assailants who shouted pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel slogans while they hunted, beat and harassed them,” the Times of Israel reported. Ten Israelis were injured, and hundreds more hid in nearby buildings for hours to escape the mobs.

At a news conference the next day, Mayor Halsema called the attack 鈥渁 pogrom,鈥� noting the careful planning and the widespread extent of the violence. Other Dutch political figures likewise called it a pogrom. Ten days later, however, the mayor said she regretted using the word 鈥減ogrom,鈥� because several Israeli soccer fans reportedly insulted some Arab fans; therefore, Halsema said, 鈥渂oth sides鈥� shared the blame.听

Pressure from Halsema鈥檚 colleagues in the far-left Groenlinks (Green) Party may have influenced her retraction. Note that some Groenlinks parliamentarians publicly declared that 鈥渢he fascism of the Israeli state鈥� was to blame for the October 7 Hamas massacres.

In December 2024, five of the Amsterdam pogromists were convicted of incitement and assault. Yet the maximum sentence handed down was just six months in prison, which was given to a convict who was identified by the media only as 鈥淪efa O.鈥� He played a 鈥渓eading role鈥� in the pogrom, and videotape was shown in court in which he could be seen chasing Jews, punching them, knocking them down, and kicking them in the head. Another thug, identified as 鈥淯mutcan A.,鈥� was sentenced to just one month in jail for beating up Jews.

In March 2025, three more of the attackers were convicted, and likewise given slaps on the wrist. 鈥淢ounir M.鈥� was sentenced to six weeks in jail for coordinating the assaults on WhatsApp. The longest sentence was just three months in prison, given to 鈥淐enk D.,鈥� who directed attackers via Whats App, wrote 鈥淎 good Jew is a dead Jew鈥� in the group chat, and distributed a photo of Anne Frank that the judges said trivialized the Holocaust.

The Nieuw Israelietisch Weekblad, a leading Dutch 91传媒 newspaper, criticized the sentences as much too lenient. Former parliamentary candidate Femke Sirag characterized them as 鈥渏oke punishments for serious, subversive antisemitic violence.鈥�

There are three concrete steps that Mayor Halsema should take now. First, she should acknowledge that the violence did resemble a pogrom and–based on the attackers鈥� own words–was obviously motivated by antisemitism. Second, she should call for the release of the attackers鈥� names; there is no reason violent antisemites should enjoy the shield of anonymity. And third, she should take a portion of the $28-million that she has allotted for 鈥減romoting 91传媒 life鈥� in Amsterdam and use it to pay restitution to the pogrom victims.

These three steps will not erase the black cloud of shame that hangs over Amsterdam鈥檚 political and legal authorities for their mishandling of the November 2024 attacks. But such actions would at least demonstrate that the mayor鈥檚 Holocaust apology was not just hollow rhetoric.听

Dr. Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and author of more than 20 books about 91传媒 history and the Holocaust. His book “The Road to October 7: Hamas, the Holocaust, and the Eternal War Against the Jews” will be published on October 1, 2025, by The 91传媒 Publication Society / University of Nebraska Press.