During and before the Second World War, we associate the most prominent leaders of the
National Socialist and the Fascist movements as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
The two were very close friends and regularly met, and it was said that following Mussolini’s
execution Hitler was hit with the realisation that the war was lost, and he was devastated.
Together the two formed their alliance initially involving Italy and Nazi Germany in the Axis
Powers, but there was also growing fascist and national socialist movements emerging
in different countries.
Even America had the Bund, which as a German American Nazi organisation, and it’s goal
was to promote Nazism in America.
However the Netherlands found themselves occupied during the Second World War, and this shocked
many as they were initially considered neutral.
But within the country, a political party and movement known as the NSB or National
Socialist Movement in the Netherlands, was having some success, and had been since the
1930s.
In charge of this was Anton Mussert, a man who collaborated with the Germans during the
conflict and was named the Leader of the Dutch People.
But as the Second World War came to and end, he was captured and arrested by the Allies
and was then convicted of treason.
Following this he was executed.
So join us today as we look at, ‘The Compelling Execution Of Anton Mussert - The Facist Leader
of the Netherlands.’
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Anton Mussert was born in May 1894, and he was the fourth child of the Mussert Family
of which there would be 5.
His father was a headteacher, and through his job the family were very well respected
within their village.
His father Johannes was a man who was highly thought of by those outside of his family.
To the outsiders he seemed to be a caring man who was there to always help his family
learn, however he regularly beat his children to establish his authority over them.
His wife and Anton’s mother Frederika was a snob and she believed she was above her
station, and inside of their marriage they often had lots of argument.
Anton’s brother joined the army and came an officer.
As a young boy, Anton Mussert was a loner, and he was short which attracted bullys to
mock him, and his deepest interests focussed on history and in particular the history of
the Netherlands.
He was not an amazing student at secondary school, and he wanted to follow his brother’s
footsteps in the military, and wanted to become a naval officer but because of his height
he was rejected.
His father Johannes was fired from his job in 1912, after working for 33 years at the
school.
After this, Anton went to Technical College and the family moved with him to help the
cost of his study.
Here he worked hard and became a serious student and focussed solely on his education.
At the start of the First World War, Anton Mussert signed up to join the Dutch Army,
and when he entered training in Amsterdam, the officers did not know what to do with
him due to his height being roughly around 5 feet 2.
He was enlisted inside an artillery regiment, but then in 1915 became ill with a kidney
infection and was released back from the army.
During his illness, he was cared for by his aunt Maria who was 18 years older, and during
this time they fell in love.
The family were appalled by this, and he fell out with his mother over the marriage he wished
to embark on with her sister.
They were granted an exemption to marry from the Queen as it was illegal for people as
closely related as they were to be married.
After achieving his diploma, he worked as an engineer, and he began to become involved
in different political organisations.
He was a member of the Liberal Freedom League, and he later rose to the position of the secretary
for the national committee of Action.
This involved work regarding a treaty with Belgian concerning Dutch waterworks, of which
Mussert was opposed to.
Mussert in this role was considered a great organiser, and within the National Union he
switched from being liberal to a fascist.
He became a member of the Dietsche Bond, and this organisation hoped that a Greater Netherlands
would be created including Flemish Belgium.
He rose throughout his job as an engineer, and he became the youngest head engineer in
the country.
Mussert however realised he could influence politics too.
He began to consider starting a political party, and he began to become very concerned
with the politics of the Netherlands.
On the 14th December 1931 along with ten others and Cornelius van Geelkerken, Mussert founded
the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands, as a counterpart for the Nazi Party.
Mussert assumed the role as the Dutch Mussolini, and he was seen as a good organiser and his
confidence as the leader grew as time went on.
The movement was based more on Italian Fascicsm than Nazism, and Mussert idolised Mussolini.
The NSB as they were known, implemented a number of the Nazi Party’s agenda and ideologies,
and of the 20 points in their political manifesto, they copied 16 of them from the Nazi policy,
with the Fuhrer principle and the eugenics policy left out.
The party continued to build and during the elections of 1935 it gained 8% of the votes.
The party then began to become more radical and antisemitic as time went on, and their
support floundered as time went on.
As the Second World War broke out, the NSB sympathised with the Germans and were supported
neutrality for the Netherlands.
It was reported in April 1940, that Mussert and his followers were planning a coup and
were plotting to kidnap Queen Wilhelmina.
On the 10th May 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands, and within a week the Germans
had occupied the country with the Dutch surrendering.
Mussert began to organise a suppression of the other political parties, with only the
NSB remaining in the Nazi occupation.
He was not appointed the prime minister of the nation, with Artur Seyss-Inquart becoming
the Reichkommisar, and Mussert was summoned to Berlin to help to control the Dutch people
and to suppress any resistance.
He worked alongside the Gestapo, to hunt down any resistors and he had 5 meetings with Hitler.
He wished for the Netherlands to be independent, and Seyss-Inquart even rallied to Hitler that
Mussert should become the Prime Minister, but Hitler would not relent.
Mussert was made ‘the Leader of the Dutch People,’ a title that carried very little
power.
There were more pro-German members of his party, and his influence did not carry much
power, with others having more sway.
He did oversee dutch members of the NSB training with the SS to militarise them, and he created
the Dutch SS as a division of the NSB.
He also oversaw the formation of the 24rd SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Divison Nederland,
which was recruited in the Netherlands and then trained in Hamburg.
The unit saw service on the Eastern Front and fought alongside the Germans.
HE seemed like a man who was keen to win Hitler over, but he could not do so, and it was clear
that the Germans within the Netherlands were the key power, with even those men who formed
the SS division and the army division being passed over to the German military leadership.
His dream for an independent Dutch government loyal to Hitler but independent would not
come whilst the war was going on.
Hitler stated that the Dutch people should not be considered conquered, as he did value
them and regarded them as aryans.
Within the Netherlands as the Second World War went on, the Dutch people were experiencing
a period of continued hardship, especially towards the end of the conflict, with many
areas suffering huge food shortages.
Mussert was concerned that the Germans were thriving but the Dutch were not, and he believed
this was down to the work of Hitler’s inner circle, and in particular men such as Heinrich
Himmler.
In 1943, many male members of the NSB had been conscripted into the Landwacht, an SS
division that fought on both the Eastern and Western Front, and even fought in the Netherlands
against the allies.
These men also helped the government to control the population inside of the country, but
as 1944 came it was clear that at some point the Netherlands would fall.
The NSB expected this to happen following the Normandy Invasions, and also in particular
after the capture of Antwerp in September 1944.
The following day, many members of the NSB’s leadership fled towards Germany, and the party’s
hierarchy fell apart.
At the time also, the Nazis banned food transport by rail, resulting in the Hongerwinter, where
18,000 died from starvation.
During this, Mussert remained very quiet and was fearful of losing his power and the NSB
simply crumbled.
He gave his final political speech on the 7th April 1945, but a few weeks later he was
involved in a car crash.
His car smashed into a Wehrmacht truck and he was injured.
A plan was made inside the hospital, as an armed resistance group planned to kidnap him,
but the plot was foiled.
Whilst he was in hospital, the war was virtually declared over with the death of Adolf Hitler,
and Mussert made an announcement honouring the dead leader of Nazi Germany.
He travelled to the NSB Office in The Hague, and then told the police of his location and
he gave himself up, with the German occupation of the Netherlands in tatters.
He was arrested at 15:30 on the afternoon of the 7th May 1945.
At 7pm he was taken away and transferred to prison, and shortly after his arrest he was
charged with high treason.
He was accused of attempting to bring the country under foreign rule, assisting the
enemy and also attempting to change the constitutional government.
Mussert strongly tried to defend himself, but it was of no use.
The question was made as to what to do with Anton Mussert, but the court found him completely
guilty of treason and for this he was sentenced to death.
The sentence was announced on the 12th December 1945, and he then tried to appeal the sentence.
He failed and the judgement was confirmed, and he also requested to be pardoned but this
also was rejected.
The execution date was set for Tuesday 7th May, a year exactly from his arrest.
When the day arrived, at 6am he was collected by the commander of the prison where he was
being kept in The Hague.
After this, he left his prison cell for the final time.
Mussert along with hie brother in law, and a priest and two guards then made their way
towards the prison vehicle where they were loaded on and transported to Waalsdorpervlakte.
This is an open air dune area where during the Second World War its estimated that up
to 280 members of the Dutch resistance were killed by the Germans.
In a twist of events, the dunes would be the site of one more execution, the man who collaborated
with the German occupiers.
The firing squad for Anton Mussert’s execution had already been gathered and were readied
before the condemned arrived, and at 6:27am, Mussert arrived and got out of the vehicle.
It parked close to the dunes where he would be executed, and then within 3 minutes of
arriving he was dead.
Once he got out of the car, final checks were made, and he was then led over to the firing
squad where he was secured and then the firing squad were prepared.
It’s assumed that Mussert would have been tied to a post to prevent him escaping and
running, and once they were ready the firing squad shot straight into him, killing him
instantly.
At 6:30am he was executed, just 3 minutes after arriving at the site of his execution.
Afterwards, his body was buried anonymously at the General Cemetery in The Hague, however
his sister was visited by the police in 1956 and asked where his body was.
The night before on the 16th June 1956, his body was been stolen and was missing.
A newspaper was informed that his remains had been dug up and taken away, and the group
who did it knew what they were doing.
Amongst all of the burials, only Mussert’s coffin was taken away.
The government didn’t entirely know what had happened too, but it’s believed that
at least 4 unknown members of the NSB and ex-Eastern Front soldiers stole his body,
and then reburied it in one of their gardens in Het Gooi.
Where the remains of Anton Mussert today are, remain a mystery.
Some believe they are still in Het Gooi, and others believe they were taken into Belgium.
Anton Mussert was seemingly a power hungry man who wished to rule as a dictator in the
Netherlands, however he was never viewed by other dictators such as Hitler as a man capable
of doing so.
He was a man who collaborated with the Nazi government and with Hitler, but was repaid
with very little power and a title that held no significant authority.
Overall it was the Nazis who called the shots in the Netherlands during the occupation,
with Mussert just a puppet figure.
His execution was a significant one, but it’s one that is forgotten when we look at the
deaths of prominent figures involved in the Second World War.
Ultimately to the dutch people who were suffering towards the end of the conflict, he was a
despicable traitor who was in the pockets of the brutal Nazi occupiers.
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