EN

COMO

Subject

Adressess: Dintelstraat 95 (April 1941); Rijnstraat 227, Amsterdam.[1] Telephone 29991.

Reading club Cultureel Ontspannend, Maatschappelijk Ontwikkelend ('Culturally Relaxing, Socially Developing').[2] Founder and owner Jacob Licht was a friend of Jan Gies.[3] At this bookshop-cum-library, Gies borrowed books for the people in hiding.

Initially, it was a company for circulating reading portfolios that started on 30 April 1941.[1] It was an initiative of civil servants dismissed from municipal service after the February strike. According to the German authorities, subscriptions for the reading company were sold among municipal staff a few months later. The director of the Municipal Transport Company circulated a notice that such activities were strictly forbidden during work hours.[4]

Licht was issued a sign Prohibited for Jews for his business in April 1942.[5] An advertisement appeared on 8 May 1945 thanking COMO for its support 'In the difficult time after the February 1941 strike'.[6]

A certain Riet (M.J.M.) Peters, who was boarding with the Amende family, worked at COMO. She eventually took over the business.[7]

On 18 November 1952, COMO hosted an exhibition of children's books in one of the classrooms of the Sixth Montessori School on the occasion of a parents' evening.[8]

Footnotes

  1. a, b Kamer van Koophandel Amsterdam, Handelsregister, dossier 33055685. Dit gesloten dossier is nog in beheer van de KvK in Amsterdam en zal op een later moment overgaan naar het Noord-Hollands Archief in Haarlem.
  2. ^ Vignet C.O.M.O., Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Anne Frank Collectie (AFC), reg. code: B_Achterhuis_I_011.
  3. ^ Miep Gies & Alison Leslie Gold, Herinneringen aan Anne Frank. Het verhaal van Miep Gies, de steun en toeverlaat van de familie Frank in het Achterhuis, Amsterdam: Bakker, 1987, p. 108.
  4. ^ Stadsarchief Amsterdam (SAA), Gemeente Vervoer Bedrijf, toegang 5252, inv. nr. 4642, circulaire A.D. 83, 9 juni 1941.
  5. ^ SAA, Gemeentepolitie Amsterdam, toegang 5225, inv. nr. 6605: Rapport d.d. 14 april 1942.
  6. ^ Advertentie, Nieuw Christelijk Sociaal Cultureel Dagblad, 8 mei 1945.
  7. ^ Anne Frank Stichting AFS), Getuigenarchief, Bunjes: Gesprek met Joke en Martin Bunjes, 28 mei 2009. Voor de overname, zie ook noot 1.
  8. ^ AFS, Anne Frank Collectie, reg. code A_Montessorischool_I_0005: Uitnodiging ouderavond dinsdag 18 november 1952.