Amsterdam’s tram operator chased invoices from Germany for taking Jews to death camps
Amsterdam’s public transport operator demanded payment from Germany for the unpaid costs of trams used to transport Jews, including Anne Frank, to concentration camps two years after the Second World War ended.
63,000 Jews were deported from Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands, with the Nazis hiring trams to take Jews, including the young diarist and her family, to the city’s train station.
The Gestapo in the Hague paid the GVB, Amsterdam’s municipal public transport operator, 10 guilders per tram and 12.50 guilders for night-time journeys.
The GVB sent monthly invoices for the 900 tram rides but not all were paid before the Netherlands was liberated in May 1945.