What were the long-term plans of the Nazis for the occupied-Netherlands?
In May 1940 the Germans conquered the Netherlands. And the country remained occupied for the upcoming five years. What
were the long term plans of the Nazis for this occupied low country? Did the Netherlands have
to be absorbed into a Greater Germanic Reich or could it become a Nazi client state?
Or something else? Keep watching to find out!
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It was May 15, 1940. In the Dutch town of Rijsoord General Winkelman – supreme commander
of the Dutch armed forces – signed the unconditional surrender. The Netherlands had fallen. Although with the exception of Zeeland, because there were Allied troops located there.
They had to be evacuated first and then the whole of the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany. The city centre of
of Rotterdam was now a smoking ruin in which 800 Dutch civilians had perished. Over 2,000
Dutch soldiers had fallen on the battlefield. Many of them were killed on the Grebbeberg
were a battle was fought.
The initial occupation was light.
Hitler considered the Dutch as fellow Aryans according to his race theories. As a sign of good gesture Hitler
ordered the release of Dutch POW's in July 1940. The highest authority was Reichcommissar
Arthur Seyss-Inquart. Under him served 1,500 German civil servants. These civil servants
instructed Dutch civil servents. Furthermore German police of the Sicherheitspolizei
was stationed as well as German soldiers on the Dutch coast in case of a British attack.
These soldiers were also kept in the country to maintain order.
The initial impression of the German occupier wasn't negative. The German soldiers seemed
to be fine lads. Many Dutch people were dissapointed in the royal family who had abandoned the
country. Furthermore, the German armies booked spectacular results in the month after May
1940. Hitler appointed Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Reich Commissioner of the Netherlands.
The Dutch mocked him by calling him 6 ¼. Cause if you say his name
in Dutch it sounds like six and a quarter (zes-en-een-kwart) and that isn't much. Yet, Seyss-Inquart was a very intelligent
man. He had an IQ of 141. It seemed to be incompatible: nazism and intelligence. What
seems even more incompatible is 'sensitivity' which Seyss-Inquart also possessed.
“The combination of intelligence and feeling with National Socialism can only be understood
from the perspective of 'totality'. Like all convinced Nazis, Seyss-Inquart was a "total
human being" and therefore capable of a passion that eliminates all compassion and pushes
the individual beyond himself. […] For Seyss-Inquart, National Socialism fulfilled the function
that faith would have fulfilled in other circumstances: it abolished everything else. It was the way
to the Destination. In his case, that destiny was the grand ideal of a Third Reich.”
Seyss-Inquart promised the Germans wouldn't impose their ideology on the Dutch. However,
this turned out to be a lie. As the Nazis set in motion
a proces of Gleichschaltung (co-ordination) where they established a system
of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of Dutch society "from the economy
and trade associations to the media, culture and education". Freedoms of press and speech
were abolished and many Dutch responded with aversion and many didn't understand: would
the Nazis really think that after a treacherous invasion, the Dutch would go along with their ideology?
So how did Seyss-Inquart view the Netherlands? After the Eighty Years was over
in 1648 (we go way back) the Dutch had turned away from the Germanic Reich. The country had fled in an idyll of
windmills and clogs and needed to be awakened. There were three options:
– Asian steppe spirit from the east (Aziatische steppengeest),
– Americanism from the west, – Germanic national socialism.
Seyss-Inquart argued the Netherlands was related to Germany by race and blood and should become
a federal state of Germany. Within this structure there was room for the Dutch to be themselves.
It was the German Führer that was responsible for the process. In 1943 Seyss-Inquart had
written this in a paper he handed to Mussert, the leader of the Dutch Nazi Party. Hitler
told the same story to Mussert a few month later. Hitler argued it wasn't the goal to
'undutch the Dutch', but 'to solve with the other Germanic people what must be solved
together'. It is kinda hard what to make of it. After 1945 fascism and national socialism
was labeled as total nonsense that came from crooks and bandits. But even back then it
was hard to determine what his exact goal was. Seyss-Inquart often repeated that European culture
was ill and national socialism was the cure. Therefore Seyss-Inquart was involved in the
the publication of cultural magazines, he stimulated exhibitions and concerts. He also
gave lectures.
“To that extent, fascism [and Nazism] can be called the convulsion of a world that passed
away, albeit that this world never really existed. It was an 'invented tradition', a
phenomenon that, although situated in an existing past, was actually invented and had no other
purpose than to legitimize a political ideology.”
To illustrate this. Let's look at the views of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. He imagined
the Netherlands, Belgium and north-eastern France as a province of the Germanic Third Reich.
It's name would be: Burgundia. This refered to the era of the Burgundian Netherlands (1384–1482).
When the Germans had conquered the Netherlands this ideology could become a reality.
But it wouldn't be easy. First and foremost most Dutch citizens weren't drawn to this
extreme ideology: nor communism, nor fascism or national socialism. In the eyes of most Dutchmen Nazi Germany had a bad image. Even before
the war. The Dutch Nazis (mostly united in the NSB, the Dutch Nazi Party) enjoyed a brief
electoral success in 1935, but were pushed back to the margins of society. The sentiment
was: National Socialism was German stuff; maybe
good for them but not for us. Second, the leader of the NSB Anton Mussert
had different ideas. He envisioned a Dutch fascist state within a fascist Europa albeit
somewhat independent from Germany. His collegue Meinhoud Rost van Tonningen believed the Netherlands
should be fully integrated in the Third Reich. Do notice that Mussert did want to cater the
Germans as much as possible. Especially after they had taken over the country. Initially he wasn't anti-Semitic but later became as such.
At the end it all didn't work out. As said before the Dutch weren't persuaded to national
socialism and that was for a large part due to Dutch culture and to be more specifiek:
pillarisation (verzuiling). The politico-denominational segregation of a society into groups by religion
and associated political beliefs. This was organized horizontally and in line with democracy
were irreconcilable elements existed next to one another. That was against everything
the Nazis stood for because they advocated a dictatorship which was vertically and where
deviating elements had to be eliminated.
“The Germans demanded uniformity, the Dutch tried to maintain their diversity as much
as possible. A tug-of-war was the result. In most cases, the Germans, fed up with the
discussion, at some point took the decision and forced the Dutch to make adjustments.
Subsequently, the Dutch supposedly bowed their heads, but in fact continued as much as possible
the way they always had done things. […] Their mentality was different from that of the Germans.”
Interesting enough, in 1944 Seyss-Inquart reflected on his rule regarding the Netherlands.
He argued the biggest mistake was to force the Dutch into his system. It didn't work
and resistance was the result.
So did the Nazis have a unambiguous plan of what had to become of occupied-Netherlands?
No. The German Nazis weren't on the same page and the Dutch Nazis weren't on the same page either. And then there are
the external factors that influenced the German plans: the fact that most Dutch were not drawn
to national socialism, Dutch culture was at odds with Nazi culture and perhaps the biggest
factor of them all: the downfall of the Third Reich. So if the Nazis would've prevailed and if Germany
would've won the Second World War we can only speculate what had become of the occupied-Netherlands.