Victims of circumstance: Jewish enemy nationals in the Dutch West Indies, 1938-1947 (World War II, internment)

In May 1940, the Dutch Colonial Government in Curacao, Dutch West Indies, arrested and interned 422 enemy nationals, of whom seventy-seven were Jews. Although it was clear that the latter group posed no threat to the safety of the islands, to discourage further immigration the government subjected the refugees to the same regulations they applied to Nazi prisoners. This study chronicles the wartime refugee policies of the Colonial Government of the Dutch West Indies, procedures that have been ignored or understated in Dutch and Jewish historiography. These policies, and the subsequent breakdown of the long-standing cordial relationship between the Protestants and the Jews, became catalysts for sweeping colonial reforms after the war.