Ode to Alida de Jong | A bun among a hundred mustaches

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Solidarity was a matter of course for Alida de Jong. As a trade unionist, Amsterdam council member and member of the Lower House, she stood up for groups not covered by the Labor Law, such as nurses and catering staff. She demanded that women also receive minimum wage and realized lowering the age limit for welfare to single women. When World War II broke out and she had the chance to flee she did not go, remaining in solidarity with her “seamstresses” and other Jews who could not leave. In 1943, Alida de Jong was murdered in Sobibor.

Alida de Jong (baptismal name: Aaltje) was born on December 10, 1885, in a basement apartment on Weesperstraat, at the time a lively shopping street and certainly not the poorest part of Amsterdam. But basement dwellings were poor, with little daylight and damp walls.

Alida grew up with her three brothers and one sister in a devout Jewish family. With her parents Levie de Jong and Sara de Jong-Serlui, they lived with Sara's mother-in-law. In 1906 father Levie, unemployed for the umpteenth time, exchanged the diamond worker's trade for that of “milk liquor”. He rented a store apartment in Nieuwe Kerkstraat. Still somewhat shabby, but now on the first floor - quite an improvement.

Alida is smart and eager to learn. After elementary school, she would like to continue her education, but since there was no money to do so, she chose to become a costume seamstress and worked in various workshops. Through her oldest brother Sam, Alida became acquainted with the labor movement. Out of curiosity, she goes to a meeting of the Naaistersvereeniging Allen Eén (Sewers' Union All One). When a colleague complains to the Labor Inspectorate about forced overtime and is fired, all the seamstresses at the workshop declare their solidarity and Allen Eén jumps into the breach on their behalf. This is the starting signal for Alida to become an active member of the seamstress association and the beginning of a long union career. She will become the first woman in the Netherlands to be paid for her union work.

But first, in addition to her work as a seamstress, Alida will do unpaid work for the union. In 1906, she also joins the Social Democratic Labor Party (SDAP) and the Union of Social Democratic Women's Clubs (BSDVC). The latter is led by Mathilde Wibaut and Alida becomes a board member there. She is the only worker and also the only unmarried woman. She often feels misunderstood and is annoyed that the BSDVC pays more attention to housewives than to working women.  

On July 15, 1912, Alida de Jong joins the Amsterdam branch of the Nederlands Verbond van Vakverenigingen as “paid treasureress. First part-time, two years later full-time. This makes her the first woman in the Netherlands to be paid for her trade union work. She quits her job at De Bijenkorf, the company she was employed at until then. In 1920, the union branches elect Alida to the three-member executive committee.

Now she also begins to play a role in the national trade union movement. From 1912 she represents the Union in the Clothing Industry at all NVV congresses and meetings. Later she also sits on the NVV's executive council. She can be seen in photos of NVV congresses in 1912 and 1914. She is - in her own words - “A bun among about a hundred mustaches.” She insists that the unions should try much harder to attract women members. But then, of course, the unions must also have something to offer working women and girls: they too were due a decent wage. 

From 1925 Alida de Jong appeared on the SDAP candidate lists for the Lower House, but she was not elected until 1937. She had already served in the House of Representatives from 1931 to 1933, replacing Adrien H. Gerhard. Also in the House of Representatives, Alida stood up for the interests of women, young people and single people. She insisted on the importance of reducing working hours, retraining and extending compulsory education. These are also issues that she has put on the agenda in the Amsterdam city council since 1935 as an SDAP member (since the autumn of 1939, chairman of the parliamentary party). For example, she argued for longer shifts for the boys of the City Cleaning Department, for co-determination of the municipal staff and against the outrageous working hours in the hospitals.

And then the Second War breaks out. Alida de Jong is among fifteen trade union officials who are dismissed in August 1940 by order of the German occupier. In November 1940 she is expelled from the Amsterdam city council because of her Jewishness. During the May days there was talk of her fleeing to England with her cousin Loe de Jong (the later historian), but out of solidarity with “her seamstresses” she remained in occupied Holland and did not go into hiding. On June 20, 1943, Alida and her sister Nannette were rounded up in a large raid and taken to Westerbork. On July 6, they were transported to “an unknown place.” Just before her departure, Alida manages to write a short bill to her good friend Miep, which has miraculously been preserved. Alida did not know that she and her sister would be dead three days later. For that unknown place is Sobibor extermination camp in Poland, where the train arrives on July 9, 1943.

Little is known of Alida de Jong's private life, which she carefully shielded. Until the age of 42 she lived in the parental home in Nieuwe Kerkstraat. After that (1928) she lived in Jekerstraat and then Marathonweg in Amsterdam-Zuid. Her sister Nannette and brother Jaap lived with her. Alida did not marry. She was always working and, as she herself said, had “little talent for feminine service.” Sister “Nan” did the housework. Alida was an outspoken woman who went her own way. She detached herself from her parental Jewish milieu; she was allergic to religion anyway, believing that all religious authorities breed humble resignation. But she also disregarded the teetotalism preached by many socialists. Alida smokes small cigars and she drinks. Her scarce free time is spent reading, attending concerts and theaters. And she enjoys making outings with the married Piet van Eck, president of the Amsterdam chapter of the Metalworkers Union, with whom she had a romance for many years.

Honors

At the centennial anniversary of the Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (FNV) in 2006, members proclaimed her “Trade Union Woman of the Century.

Sources consulted

https://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/AlidadeJong

https://vakbondshistorie.nl/dossiers/alida-de-jong-vakbondsvrouw-par-excellence/

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alida_de_Jong