In the Netherlands the Amsterdam Jewish Council was established on February 11, 1941. It was led by the diamond manufacturer and chairman of the Church Council of the Netherlands - Israelite main Synagogue, Abraham Asscher and the professor of ancient history, also the president of the Committee for Jewish Refugees, David Cohen. In addition, another twenty Jews were seated on the board.
The direct reason for the establishing a Jewish council was the riots which has been provoked by the NSB (which was a Dutch fascist party and later a Nazi political party that called itself a "movement") in the capital of Amsterdam. As tension rose, the Dutch pro-Nazi movement NSB and its street fighting arm, WA (Defense Section), were involved in a series of provocation in the Jewish neighborhoods in Amsterdam. This eventually led to riots and a series of street battles between the WA and the Jewish self-defense groups and their supporters, culminating in a pitched battle on February 11, 1941 on the Waterlooplein. On February 12, the German Soldiers, assisted by Dutch Police, encircled the old Jewish neighborhood and cordoned this off from the rest of the city. On February 9, the German Grune Police stormed an ice cream store, a fight broke out and several police officer were wounded and the leader of the German Police died. The refence of the Germans for this fight came on the weekend of 22-23 of February, when the Germans rounded up 425 Jewish men of the age of 20-35, they were taken hostage and imprisoned in Kamp Schoorl and eventual sent to the Buchewald and Mauthausen concentration camps, were most of them died, of the 425 only two survived. Following this progrom, on February 24, a strike in protest and support of the treatment Jewish people and against the pogrom against Jewish citizen spread throughout the city. This strike/protest demonstration is now remembered as the February Strike.
This strike was later followed by other cities across the country, followed by a strike of the students. This was the start of armed covert resistant movement on national scale against the Germans
Beauftragte Bohmcker made it clear that the Jewish Council would be held responsible for law and order in the Jewish districts. If the council failed to ensure this, house searches would be carried out and there would be severe punishments for anyone possessing arms.
The Jewish Council had a Cartotheek (an Archive of identity cards) and the administration maintained around 160.000 identity cards, which was created as an instrument of the Jewish persecution and was part of the National War archive of the Red Cross. The information came from various administration of the Jewish Councils and were than consolidated. Each of those contained the personal information of individual Jewish people during World War II. After 1945 these cards were used to determine what happened with each person during Sjoa.
The information department of the Red Cross was informed after the War to gather the information of al the victims and survivors of the persecution during the German occupation of The Netherlands. As to inform other family members about loved once who had been deported and those who survived the war. The result of this archive is that it contains the information during the occupation and the years after the war. The Carthoteek of the Jews Council is now part of this archive.
The Nazi's had also set up the system of Jewish Councils in the occupied countries in Eastern Europe. The first Judenrat in Prague served as a model for this. The ultimate aim was that the Jews would contribute to the successful completion of The Final Solution. The Jewish Councils had to operate as a sort of government body. They were given various competences, but were deprived of any real power. In practice, the councils were deliberately used the encourage the isolation of the Jews from the non-Jewish population. To great satisfaction of the occupying forces, leading Jews were willing to serve the Jewish Counsel, which meant that the reputation and authority of that body increased amongst the Jews in the Netherlands. The Jewish Council insisted that the Jewish Community should strictly observed the German degrees. It was feared that failing to observe the German orders would result in even harsher measures. The Joodse dagblad (the Jewish Weekly), which was the official magazine of the Counsel, published by the occupying forces. The Jewish Council played a controversial role. The leaders were constantly weighting up cooperating with the occupying forces "in order to prevent even worse" against standing up for the interest of the Jewish community. The council tried to exempt as many Jews as possible from being deported. As Cohen described the policy _ though it was probably wring. " We must save what we save can be saved". When the deportation started, the Jewish Council could only influence the way in which list of names was drawn up. Prominent Jews and people working for the Council were exempted for the time being. The last Jews were departed from Amsterdam in September 1943, including Ascher and Cohen. This also meant the end of the Jewish Council.