On January 13, 1941, the Nazi ruler of the occupied Netherlands, Reichskommissar Arthur Seyss-Inquart, instructed the plenipotentiary (Beauftragter) for the city of Amsterdam, the Lübeck Senator Hans Böhmcker, to take measures regarding the “question of the presence of the Jews in Amsterdam”. Three days later, Böhm cker ordered the local Dutch city authorities to provide him as soon as possible with detailed data on a series of questions regarding the residential distribution of Jews in Amsterdam, foremost however about those neighborhoods in which Jews were a majority. He also asked for an accompanying map on which the borders of the “Jewish quarters” would be pointed out “precisely” (“in welchen Stadtteilen überwiegend Juden wohnen. Dazu bitte ich, eine Karte in vierfacher Ausfertigung beizufügen, aus der sich die Grenzen der Judenviertel genau ergeben”). In a consecutive report to Berlin it was said that the aim was “to have some form of a ghetto” (“um zu einer Form Ghetto zu kommen”). In the following months, a plethora of data was collected and submitted and there was quite intensive correspondence involving the German authorities, the Amsterdam municipality, and the Amsterdam Jewish Council (Joodsche Raad voor Amsterdam). This came to an end in June 1941 with the German authorities’ apparent decision not to implement a ghetto. The issue was raised again at the local Nazi top for a short while in October-November 1941, when the notion of deporting all Jews from the Netherlands within the framework of the Final Solution of the Jewish Question was in sight. However, after some deliberations, Seyss-Inquart finally decided that “At present it is not envisaged to set up a ghetto. Restrictions on Jewish housing and movements will be imposed by the police.” (“Es ist vorerst nicht beabsichtigt, ein Ghetto einzurichten. Beschränkungen der Wohn- und Aufenthaltmöglichskeiten für Juden erfolgen durch die Polizei.”)

Though no ghetto was ever established in Amsterdam, special signs (and signposts) were erected apparently marking a “Jewish quarter” (Judenviertel) and a “Jewish street” (Judenstrasse) in the center of Amsterdam, in the area which had long been called the “Jewish neighborhood” (Jodenbuurt) by Amsterdammers and was now called “the old ghetto” (“das alte Ghetto”) in German documentation. This was done in the wake of the violent irregularities which took place during the second week of February and served also as a pretext for the establishment of a Jewish Council for Amsterdam (Joodsche Raad voor Amsterdam).