On May 5 1945 the Germans in the Netherlands signed the unconditional surrender and WW2
for the Dutch was over.
But then what?
Well I'll tell you what: people were gunned down on Dam Square, on the island of Texel
Georgians fought a furosious battle against the Germans ánd it was time to punish the
collaborators.
In this video you'll learn of the aftermath of WW2 in the Netherlands.
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On May 5 1945 the Germans signed the unconditional surrender in Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen.
The biggest focus was on practical matters, such as: the assembly point for the 120,000
Germans that were still stationed in the West of the country; where to hand in their arms;
what will the retreat be like; where are their mines located?
Actually did you know that German commander Blaskowitz left without signing.
This because he was confronted with such a load of paper and questions, that he left
for Hilversum to read it all and make enquiries on several matters.
So the official signing occured the following day.
On May 7 the allies crossed the Grebbeline into the province of Utrecht.
Rotterdam, Den Haag and Amsterdam are liberated on May 8th.
Allied soldiers are met by jubilous crowds waving Dutch and Allied flags.
Girls jump on allied cars for a ride and allied soldiers are offered drinks.
There are celebrations throughout the cities.
Not everywhere there is such a positive mood.
Members of the Domestic Forces (Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten), a group of armed Dutch resistance
members eagerly wanted to disarm the Germans.
This was explicitly forbidden by the allies, basically because of the simple fact that
lack of discipline could lead to incidents.
This is exactly what happened when members of the resistance try to disarm Germans in
Utrecht.
A shoot-out results in around 10 deadly cassualties.
There a total of 44 incidents in the days after the liberation with over 200 casualties.
Biggest tragedy occured in Amsterdam on May 7.
Over 100 Dutchmen were gunned down (around 30 of them dead) by members of the German
War Navy from a building overlooking Dam Square.
I did make an episode about this dramatic event.
Links are in the discription.
When the Netherlands was liberated a terrible battle was raging on the Dutch island of Texel.
Early April the Georgian Revolt on Texel occured.
Where it came down to was that soldiers of the Georgian Legion – that were drafted
in the German army and stationed on the island of Texel – saw the end of the war was there
and they were on the losing side.
Therefore they made a last stand and rebelled against the German soldiers on the island.
You can call it a mutiny in some way.
The Georgians were assisted by the Dutch resistance and a terrible battle started at the end of
April.
This battle ended on May 20th after the Canadians intervened.
By that time around 800 Germans, over 500 Georgians and over 100 Dutch laid dead.
Dutch queen Wilhelmina had returned to her country on May 3.
She landed on a military airstrip of Gilze-Rijen.
She actually visited the country a few months earlier in Aardenburg in Zeeuw-Vlaanderen.
After this she returned to London.
Now she was here to stay.
In the days after liberation aggression by the Dutch citizens is not directed towards
German soldiers, but towards the collaborating fellow country men, or alledged collaborators.
We're talking about members of the Dutch nazi party: the NSB.
Also girls that had flirted, dated or slept with German soldiers were targetted.
Although these women weren't violently attacked, they were often pubicly humuliated, shaved
bald, swastiaks painted on their heads, you name it.
But here's the thing.
Who decides who's guilty?
And wasn't this a simple kangaroo court.
Well partially yes.
Dutch politicians feared their would be a day of reckening in which countless of people
would lose their lives.
This however did not happen.
Although revenge murders did take place this did not happened widespread.
What did happen where massive arrests.
These were mostly inspired by a statement made by Queen Wilhelmina during the war that:
Although these words weren't repreated in later broadcasts they remained in the heads
of Dutch citizens.
So what did happen afterwards?
Many collaborators where put in prison camps.
These were also Dutch volunteers that had served in the Waffen-SS and returned to a
liberated Netherlands.
After serving time in the American or British POW camps they were extradited to the Netherlands.
According to historian Peter Romijn between 120,000 and 150,000 Dutch people were detained
in the Netherlands after the war.
These people were interned in one of the 130 camps.
In these camps whole families were interned.
For this former German camps (like Camp Westerbork, Vught and Amersfoort) were used, as well as
army barracks, schools, fortresses, factories and warehouses.
The prisoners were guarded by the Domestic Forces (Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten) who – like
said before – lacked discipline.
That combined with their hatred for the enemy resulted in severe abuses, assaults and even
murder.
During the war the Dutch government in exile devised a special legal system to punish traitors
quickly and severely.
This was also to avoid kangaroo courts, which eventually did happen but not on a large scale.
Now there are a lot of different numbers of the number of arrests, number of charges,
but in the book VELDGRAUW written by Evertjan van Roekel a totall of 64,482 judgements have
been passed.
Compared to other West European countries the Netherlands punished many of its subjects.
Van Roekel states that at the end the special legal system can be called unsuccessfull since
many collaborators weren't punished.
Expulsions of Germans wasn't only a thing in central and eastern Europe.
In September 1946 the Dutch government started Operation Black Tullip: the large scale deportations
of Dutch Germans.
Among these were also German Jews or Germans that arrived in the Netherlands during the
First World War.
The allies were against it and even many Dutch were against it.
The plan was then largely dropped.
Only Germans that were pro-nazi during the war were expelled.
We're talking around 3,500 that have been deported.
Furthermore the Dutch government had also big plans of the annexations of German lands.
Look!
There were different plans.
And I know, some of you will get all excited and say we could've gotten Aachen, Münster
and Cologne.
Then I would say: yeah, we would've gotten Aachen, Münster and Cologne.
Eventually these plans weren't carried out.
But we did got some very small and tiny areas, and even a whole village, Elten, as well as
a mountain right next to it.
A really mountain that would draw many Dutch tourists till early 1960s when most of these
regions were returned to Germany for which they paid us 280 million Mark.
Always a pleasure during business with our neighbours.
After the war the material damage was estimated 25 billion guilders.
Around 100,000 houses were lost and 400,000 severily damaged.
Most of these were located in the provinces of Zeeland, Zuid-Holland and Gelderland.
Furthermore many farms, churches, schools, hospitals, bridges, railways, ships and docks
were damaged.
Reconstruction Committees were set up to oversee the rebuilding of the country.
Many applications of compensation were filed but these were processed slowly.
By 1947 over half wasn't processed.
This meant that people didn't start the reconstruction of their lost property right away and this
slowed the rebuilding proces.
This slow process was due to the many cheaters that filed claims.
In some cases school classes were held in churches, bars of private houses till early
1950s.
Complains about the shortage of housing remained.
We should not overlook the psychological impact the war must have had on many people.
After 1945 the rebuilding was focussed on, looking ahead instead of looking back.
Also due to the emerging tensions of the Cold War the discussion soon dried up.
Many surviving victims of war violence didn't seek help.
Therefore we don't have numbers.
In the late 1940s there were some Dutch psychiatrists who wrote about the psychological consequences
for those who spent time in concentration camps.
Attention was rare and this continued in the 1950s.
Only in the 1960s this changed with a system of statutory benefits for victims of war and
a range of special facilities and aid agencies.
And let us not forgot the children of the victims who might have been born after the
war, also they suffered.
In the Netherlands we refer to this as second generation victims.
Therefore I direct myself to the older viewers among us.
Have your parents experienced war violence during the Second World War?
And how was that for you.
Did you talked a lot about the war or not at all.
If you want to share, please do so.