Ch 2050 - the Dutch Resistance in Ww2

The Netherlands: History and Culture

CH2050

Essay Title

The Dutch Resistance during the Second World War

By Niall King

Student Number: 362202 E-Mail: nking91@hotmail.com

The subtle infiltration of small groups German infantry disguised as Dutch soldiers into the Netherlands on the night of the 9th of May 1940 marked the vanguard of a force of 750,000 that were to follow them across the border in a blitzkrieg assault the following day. This duplicitous violation of sovereignty proved to be the prelude to five years of occupation by the Nazi regime until total liberation was achieved by the 5th of May 1945. In this essay I will investigate the indigenous Dutch resistance to the occupation, the various forms that it took, the conditions that gave rise to these tactics, and the overall impact of the conflict on Dutch life in this period. There are several aspects of the Dutch resistance that are notable in their difference to other movements across Europe that emerged to resist Nazi occupation, such as the wide proliferation of non-violent methods of resistance, I will also attempt to answer why this is so.

The first wave of resistance encountered by Nazi forces came in the form of the conventional Dutch military, vastly outnumbered and armed with obsolete weaponry their defensive action was rapidly overwhelmed. But despite this the Dutch military, the military of a neutral nation with little in the way of aviation or tanks, did manage to mount an effective resistance in several areas, such as Rotterdam and Dordrecht, which caused a great level of surprise amongst the German high command, who expected to complete the invasion much earlier. The final capitulation of Dutch forces was instigated by the devastation of Rotterdam by the Luftwaffe, and the threat of such destruction being repeated elsewhere in the Netherlands. The shock of the invasion and the levels of destruction were considerable, the nation had not been involved in a major war since Napoleonic times, it is estimated that after the surrender around 300 individuals, mainly Jews, chose to commit suicide rather than continue the misery of a Nazi occupation . The hard fought delays allowed for a window of opportunity for escape to Britain for many Dutch nationals, the 'Engelandvaarders', amounting to around 2000 people, including the Royal Family and government officials who created a government in exile based in London.

The German occupation was initially considerably more accommodating and done with a much softer touch that when compared to other seized territories. Nazi leadership considered the Dutch to be fellow equivalents in the Aryan master race, and planned to integrate them into a greater Germany. The newly appointed Reich Commissioner of the Netherlands, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, even proclaimed at one stage that Nazi ideology would not be imposed and Dutch laws would remain intact and that the same civil service would remain intact. Despite these reassurances, the process of attempting to Nazify the country began with the implantation of the 'Gleichschaltung' plan, the creation of an enforced community, which entailed a crack down on all non-Nazi controlled organisations and the creation of a single party state, with that party being the indigenous fascist NSB, such a monolithic method of constructing a society was a stark contrast to the traditionally pillarised communities.

The isolation of the Jewish population began soon after the consolidation of the new regime; this process was greatly expedited by the well organised public records system already in place that was previously used for the collection of church taxes among the population. This began with the banning of Jewish people from certain public areas, culminating in the deportation to death camps. The first pogrom's and deportations inflicted on the Jewish population in 1941 led to levels extreme agitation among the Dutch, the out-law communist part called for a