Panurbana 112 Portiersloge Diamantslijperij Asscher

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Panurbana 112

Portiersloge Diamantslijperij Asscher

collage: 13 photos
format: 145 x 150 cm

Amsterdam 2022

Diamond polishing firm "I.J. Asscher" was founded in 1854 on the "Nieuwe Achtergracht"

by Joseph Isaac Asscher (1816-1893). The Amsterdam diamond trade reached its peak between 1900 and 1914.

There were approximately eighty diamond factories employing more than ten thousand (mainly Jewish) Amsterdammers.

In 1906 Gerrit van Arkel was commissioned to build a new diamond cutting factory in Tolstraat.

At its peak there were about 750 employees. In April 1942, the Jewish diamond traders are forced by the occupying forces to hand in their stones.

In 1943 A. Asscher was deposited to -Bergen-Belsen and survived the camp. Only fifteen of the five hundred grinders survived the concentration camps.

Due to the second world war, Amsterdam loses its leading position and is taken over by Antwerp, Tel Aviv, New York and Mumbai.