Anne Frank Diary Reference :     Amsterdam Virtual Tour         to map
 
[Adama van Scheltemaplein today] About this location:
During WWII, the British air forces bombed the building that used to be located here. This site is now a park with a large playground, as you can see.
    Before the German invasion, this site had a school, and across the street (Euterpestraat) was another school. When the Germans occupied the Netherlands during WWII, they set up numerous departments for Amsterdam in the two school buildings. The entrance for the building on this side of Euterpestraat was actually on Adama van Scheltemaplein, but people came to call both buildings "The Euterpestraat," a term which came to mean "big trouble."
    At this location, the Germans established the "Zentralstelle für Jüdische Auswanderung," The Central Office for Jewish Emigration. They were in charge of deportations of Jews from the Netherlands.

4-5 July 1942:
On 4 July 1942, the Zentralstelle sent the first few thousand call-ups via post. The call-ups arrived at their destinations on the following day, a Sunday. Many of those called up were teenagers. One of these was Margot Frank. At least two others were teens that Anne or Margot were acquainted with: Heinz Felix Markovits (son of Fritzi), and Hansi Klein's sister.
    (For less dire orders and rules, the Nazis communicated via the Jewish Council, which they created.)

30 Sept 1942:
Writing in her diary in the secret annexe, Anne Frank mentioned this location:

"The poor old people are taken outside at night and then they have to walk for instance as far as Adama v. Scheltemaplein in a whole procession with children and everything then when they arrive at Adama v. Scheltemaplein, they are sent to Ferdinand Bolstraat and from there back to A. v. Scheltemaplein and that's how they plague these poor people. Also they throw water over them if they scream. How lucky we are to be here."

Regarding the three teens I mentioned, Margot and Heinz each went into hiding but were betrayed and died in Hitler's concentration camps. The Klein girls were saved by their persistent grandmother who used the Nazi authorities' meticulous race consciousness to gain exemptions.




cross street to
the rest of the 'Euterpestraat'


teleport to two
former Nazis' home

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