Frank van Doorn MA

PhD candidate

E-mail: F.H.M.vanDoorn@tilburguniversity.edu

Area(s) of interest: Dutch History, Social & Economic History, War & Conflict

Cohort/Start PhD: 2021-2022

The Jews of North Brabant, 1930-1945

Tilburg University
Promotor(es): Prof. dr. Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld en prof. dr. John Gelissen
Project start date: June 2020

This research contributes to the construction of scientifically grounded historical explanations for the persecution of Jews between 1933 and 1945. Specifically, it assesses if, and if so, to what extent social integration was a contributive factor in the survival rate of Dutch Jews in North Brabant during the German occupation.

This study provides a longitudinal and dynamic approach by including data on all Jews living in and moving to the province of North Brabant between 1930 and 1945. Existing databases will be combined in a single person-period data file containing microdata of the some 4,000 Jews living and/or seeking refuge in the province in these years. The file will be enriched with data on their internal and external social networks and with information on previous experiences with migration and escape in order to assess to what extent these affected their chances of survival when persecution started. The resulting dataset allows us to model the hazards of finding a hiding place or another escape option, and of deportation as key dependent variables, using time-varying characteristics of the networks in which they were embedded, and individual and geographical differences as explanatory variables. The results for North Brabant will be subjected to comparison, both internally – between towns and regions in North Brabant – and, based on the existing literature, externally, with other Dutch provinces and neighbouring Belgium and Germany.

“The Jews of North Brabant, 1930-1945” is made financially possible with contributions from the Mondriaan Fund and the Mastboom-Brosens Foundation.