Forced deportation of Dutch men for labor in Germany

Forced deportation of Dutch men for labor in Germany is presented in the diary as a coercive policy that spread fear among Dutch families and constrained the choices of young people. The entries describe men being sent to Germany, students threatened with labor camps, and mobilized men assigned to prisoner-of-war camps, placing forced labor within the wider system of occupation and persecution.

Background and Expanding Control

The diary sets these measures against the occupation’s broader restrictions. After the German arrival in 1940, anti-Jewish decrees sharply limited Jewish people’s movement and public life: they had to wear the yellow star, surrender bicycles, shop only during specified hours, and attend Jewish schools, among other prohibitions. The account describes everyday life as a succession of things Jews could no longer do, while the restrictions made clear that occupation governed people through both rules and threats.

A call-up notice from the SS for Otto Frank makes the danger immediate for the family. When Margot tells Anne that their father has been summoned, Anne understands the notice as a threat of a terrible fate. The family considers moving to its hiding place the following day, with the van Pels family joining them. Although this call-up concerns Otto rather than the labor conscription of Dutch men generally, it shows how a summons could precipitate flight into hiding.

Men Sent to Germany

The diary describes the forced labor of Dutch men as a daily and visible occurrence. Bep is subdued because her boyfriend, Bertus, is being sent to Germany. Anne notes that he is not alone: trainloads of young men depart each day. Some try to slip away when trains stop at small stations; only a few escape unnoticed and find somewhere to hide. The account records both the scale of the departures and the limited, precarious possibility of evasion.

The consequences extend into the people left behind. Bep fears that the planes overhead will drop their bombs on Bertus, and Anne observes that jokes about his danger are inappropriate. His impending departure turns a general policy into a personal separation, while the threat of air attack compounds the uncertainty surrounding his fate.

Threats to Students and Mobilized Men

The pressure also reaches university students. They are asked to sign a declaration that they sympathize with the Germans and approve of the New Order. Anne reports that 80 percent have chosen to follow their conscience and refuse; those who do not sign face the severe penalty of being sent to a German labor camp. Her concern is directed toward the future of the country’s youth, who may be compelled to perform hard labor in Germany. The declaration therefore operates as a choice under duress: compliance is demanded, while refusal carries the threat of forced labor.

In another entry, Anne reports that Dutch men who fought or were mobilized in 1940 have been called up to work in prisoner-of-war camps. She connects the timing to the anticipated invasion, but presents that explanation as her own conjecture rather than confirmed information. The detail broadens the diary’s account beyond young men departing on trains: men already mobilized for military service are also being assigned labor under occupation.

Place in the Diary’s Wider Account

Forced labor appears alongside the deportation of civilians and the disintegration of ordinary family life. Anne writes that people are taken from their homes with little more than a knapsack and a small amount of cash, that families are separated, and that children may return from school to find their parents gone. She also notes that Christians fear the sending of their sons to Germany. In this account, forced labor is not confined to one population, even as Jewish people face distinct persecution and deportation.

The diary’s treatment of conscription is grounded in specific human consequences: Bertus’s departure, students’ threatened futures, and the call-up of men mobilized in 1940. Later, Anne records with sorrow that anti-Semitism has appeared in circles where it had once seemed unthinkable, and considers how German pressure can make resistance or silence costly. These entries situate forced labor within a coercive occupation in which different groups faced different dangers, and in which the fear of being sent away reached into both public life and private relationships.