Holland: Not Heroic

This week we are leaving America behind and going to Amsterdam! Mayor Femke Halsema, Mayor of Amsterdam since 2018, offered a public apology in April 2025 for the city's capitulation to the Nazi's in World War 2. “The Amsterdam government, when it came down to it, was not heroic, not determined and not merciful. And it let its Jewish residents down terribly,” Halsema said. “On behalf of the city government, I offer my apologies for this" She issued the apology at an event marking Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Mayor went on to say that civil servants in Amsterdam played an active role in the murder of thousands of Jewish citizens. From a population of 80,000 citizens, only 20,000 survived the war. Lost among the tens of thousands was Anne Frank, whose diary spoke of the horrors of the Holocaust. What parallels exist between the political situation in the US today and the political situation of Holland 80 years ago? Is history doomed to repeat itself (or at the very least rhyme)? Good news and bad news on that question!