The Daycare

Perhaps you've walked past here more than once, but directly opposite the Schouwburg was, during the war, a crèche where human resistance operated in the deepest secrecy. While parents were held in the Hollandsche Schouwburg on their way to Westerbork, their young children were separated and placed in that nursery.

Walter Süskind, manager of the Schouwburg, played a pivotal role in this operation. Thanks to his German background and friendly relations with SS officer Aus der Fünten, he earned the occupiers’ trust. He began secretly removing children’s names from the registry so they could disappear without a trace. Together with Felix Halverstad and nursery director Henriëtte Pimentel, he organized the escape routes.

Children were discreetly guided through the garden and into the adjacent Hervormde Kweekschool. Some were hidden in baskets, backpacks, or bags; others simply ran after the tram that blocked the SS guards’ view. Resistance groups — including the Amsterdam Student Group, the NV‑group, the Utrecht Children’s Committee, and the Trouw group — collected the children from there and arranged foster homes in Limburg, Friesland, and Drenthe.

Between 1942 and 1943, an estimated 500 to 700 children were rescued; some figures even suggest up to 1,000. For many, this action was the difference between life and the extermination camps.

Though the crèche is gone and the building long since demolished, this place remains a symbol of hope and courage — a quiet, invisible struggle that saved lives, right across from the most powerful instrument of oppression: the Schouwburg.