It’s a controversial term for those who know the story of the Holocaust. The word refers to Jewish councils of local leaders appointed at the bequest of the Nazis to liaison between the local Jews and the Nazi occupying forces, often at the detriment of their fellow Jews. After the war, many of those who survived were shunned by fellow Jews for helping lead them to the slaughter.
What was it like to be a Jewish leader put in such an impossible position? A 2024 Dutch period drama, “The Jewish Council,” tells the story of one such a man: Professor David Cohen, the co-president of Amsterdam’s Joodse Raad (Jewish Council). All five episodes of “The Jewish Council” will be streaming for free on The Network starting June 22.
“The Jewish Council,” which stars Pierre Bokma as Cohen, aired in the Netherlands last year and has gotten rave reviews for the acting, storytelling and its cinematic feats.
It’s a heartbreaking, arresting show, and it paints Cohen, a professor of history who was deeply involved in the Zionist movement, as a sensitive but pragmatic man who believed he was doing what he could for his community. He optimistically thinks that the war will soon come to an end, and that he can somehow help keep the Jews of Amsterdam more protected by keeping the peace with the Germans. But as the Nazi occupation becomes more oppressive and news of the horrors happening outside of the Netherlands reach the local Jewish community, resentment towards his council grows.
David’s daughter, Virrie Cohen (Claire Bender) works at a local orphanage. She takes care of Jewish refugee children and hears stories about what is happening in Poland. Like her father, she wants to save her fellow Jews, and the children she cares for, but finds her own way to do that — joining the Dutch resistance. The series show the tensions between these two and their approaches towards survival, as the situation becomes more and more dire for their community.
TV and film movies about the Dutch experience of the Holocaust most often focus on its most famous victim, Anne Frank, like the recent “A Small Light.” Yet the Dutch Jewish community was decimated by the Holocaust — less than 25% of it survived — and there are so many more stories to tell.
“The Jewish Council” centers a little-told-before true story about the Jewish experience of the Holocaust. While we’ve seen members of Jewish councils and leaders featured in shows and movies, often as unwitting villains, we’ve never seen a piece of media that focuses on what it meant to be one of those leaders — to be stuck between a rock and the hardest of places.
“The Jewish Council” will be streaming on June 22 on the Network, which is free to watch and can be found at thenetwork.stream, and as a streaming app on Xfinity, Xumo, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Android.
