The “Holland Action” – Transfer and auction of household goods from Rotterdam in Lübeck
The research project “The Holland Action: Dealing with the belongings of Jewish emigrants in Rotterdam and Lübeck from 1942 onwards” at the German Maritime Museum (DSM) / Leibniz Institute for Maritime History has been complementing the two projects on dealing with the belongings of Jewish emigrants after 1939 in Bremen and Hamburg since November 1, 2025.
This new research also focuses on the expropriation of Jewish people during the Nazi era in Germany. After the outbreak of war on September 1, 1939, when civilian German ships were no longer permitted to sail in international waters, emigrants and their contracted shipping companies attempted to transport their cargo overseas primarily via the two major ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. This possibility was thwarted by the German invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium in May 1940. Many people who managed to flee abroad in time to escape the persecutions and crimes of the Nazi regime waited in vain for their belongings from their homeland during their involuntary emigration.
The household goods, packed in liftvans and crates, were stored in various warehouses in the Netherlands (as was also the case in Bremen and Hamburg). In 1942, the German occupying forces, especially the then "Reichskommissar für die besetzten niederländischen Gebiete” Arthur Seyß-Inquart, ordered that some of these household goods be transported to Lübeck for public auction. Lübeck had been heavily damaged by air raids at Easter 1942, which is why the goods from Rotterdam were sent there "to alleviate the bomb damage."
The then Chief Financial Officer in Kiel, Richard Giese, was responsible for the confiscations, transports (by the company Schenker & Co.) and so-called "Verwertung" (engl. “Liquidation”) of the goods. In Lübeck, the tax office was responsible for the sales and public auctions between February and September 1943.
In our projects, we conduct fundamental research, as we do not focus on individual objects or people affected, but rather examine the events of the numerous expropriations and auctions over a long period in entire cities. Our primary focus is on the objects themselves and their owners.
We make our research findings available online in our LostLift database: www.lostlift.dsm.museum.
Provenance researchers, museum staff, and auction houses worldwide can use this database to search for objects, and the descendants and families of the emigrants can find out if any documents or information about their relatives and their property still exist.
The project is kindly supported by the Deutschen Zentrum Kulturgutverluste.
Further provenance projects: