Saskia Coenen Snyder

Jewish diamond merchants being searched at the Diamond Exchange, Amsterdam by order of the SS Devisenschutzkommando, 16 April 1942. Bart de Kok/Amsterdam City Archives OKBB00024000039.

Diamonds and the Holocaust

As Jewish lapidaries were held in Nazi concentration camps, diamond sales soared in the US. Both sides saw gemstones as integral to the war effort.