2-WWII+Netherlands+OT


 * //__Problems To Be Addressed: Occupied Territories — __//****__Netherlands — By: Nik Purohit __**
 * **What were the circumstances in the [Netherlands] that compelled the policies implemented by the occupying power there? How was policy shaped to address these circumstances? **
 * ** __Occupying Power __ **: Nazi Germany
 * Invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940
 * May 15 1940—one day after the bombing of Rotterdam—the Dutch forces finally surrendered
 * Dutch government and the royal family went into exile in London
 * Netherlands placed under German occupation—until 1945
 * **__Circumstances in the Netherlands __**
 * //Neutrality Status //
 * Before WWII, the Dutch government was able to preserve its neutrality throughout the entire conflict
 * Hence, after the war—the “inter-war period”—they continued this foreign policy and stance of neutrality in the geopolitics of the region, even after the Nazi surge to power in Germany
 * The rise of the Nazi Party in Germany in 1933 changed the geopolitics of the region as policymakers had to now evaluate or consider a new leader and possible threat
 * Prime Minister Colijn of Netherlands (conservative), who served from 1933 to 1939, believed that the Netherlands would not be able to survive an attack by a major power, as a result //__military spending was a low priority__//
 * Eventually military spending was doubled between 1938 and 1939, as a result escalating international tension in the region, however it was only 4% of national spending—meanwhile in Germany military spending compromised 25% of national spending
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Amid increasing tension, the Dutch government believed that it would be able to //__rely on its neutrality__//, or the //__informal support__// of foreign powers to defend its interests __in the scenario of conflict__
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Though, the government //eventually// did begin work on plans for defense of the country
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The significance of this is that once war had already been declared among France, Great Britain, and Germany—Germany issued a guarantee of neutrality to the Netherlands, thereby pacifying them and putting “their guard down”
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">“The new Reich has endeavored to continue the traditional friendship with Holland. It has not taken over any existing differences between the two countries and has not created any new ones. ” — German guarantee of Neutrality, October 6 1939
 * __<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Despite its policy of neutrality __<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">, the Netherlands was invaded by Germany on the morning of 10 May 1940, //without// a formal declaration of war
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">The Dutch military, with insufficient and outdated weapons and equipment, was caught largely unprepared, as much of its weaponry had not changed since WWI
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">This //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">false-guarantee //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"> of neutrality is the “policy” that Germany took advantage of in order to pursue its interests, as for example they used Dutch airfields on the coast to launch raids on Great Britain—they used the Netherlands as a strategic pivot point to pursue their interests in the region and establish their supremacy
 * //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">National Politics and state of National Economy //
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Between 1929 and 1940, the Dutch governments were dominated by Christian and rightist (center-right) parties
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">From 1933, the Netherlands were suffering from a Great Depression that had begun in 1929
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Prime Minister Colijn pursued a program of extensive cuts to maintain the value of the country’s currency
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Result
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Workers’ riots and naval mutiny (1933-1934)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">1936—government forced to abandon gold standard
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Depression created //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">the ////<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">atmosphere //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"> for __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">numerous fascist movement to emerge __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"> in the Netherlands, inspired by Italian Fascism or German Nazism
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">The movements never managed to attract enough followers to become a mass-movement, through the pro-Nazi movement and sentiments in the Netherlands, was just enough to make an impact as it was supported by the Nazi Party (which had just taken power in Germany)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Though the “Nazi-style racial ideology” had limited appeal in the Netherlands, along with its call for mass violence and genocide
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Upon invasion, Germany was easily able to occupy the Netherlands due to pro-Nazi support that already existed in national politics and the region


 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">What were the effects of the occupation of [Netherlands] on the occupying power's war effort? This should include basic data such as numbers of troops diverted to the occupation and so forth, but should also take into account less logistical factors such as the psychological effect of occupation on the occupying power, issues of morale, attitudes of occupation forces toward the local population (and vice versa) and the degree to which that sharpened or dulled the occupiers' resolve, etc. **
 * **__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Life under German occupation __**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Refusal of the Dutch government to return after German invasion and control led to the Netherlands being controlled by a German civilian governor
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The civil government, the “Reichskommissariat Niederlande”, was headed by the Austrian Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">German occupiers implemented a policy of //Gleichschaltung//—"enforced conformity"—and systematically eliminated non-Nazi organizations
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">1940—the German regime immediately outlawed all Socialist and Communist parties
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">1941—the German regime forbade all parties, except for the NSB
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Gleichschaltung was an enormous shock to the Dutch
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Dutch people traditionally had separate institutions for all main religious groups, particularly Catholic and Protestant, because of decades of pillarization
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">As a result of the anti-religious nature of Gleichschaltung, the process was opposed by the Catholic Church in the Netherlands, and in 1941 all Roman Catholics were urged to leave associations that had been “Nazified”
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Nazi Germany also tried to incorporate the Netherlands into the Greater Germanic Reich
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Adolf Hitler thought very highly of the Dutch people, who were considered to share the ethnic and racial characteristics of the Aryan "master race" Hitler idealized
 * **//__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Luftwaffe __//****__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> — German Aerial Branch a.k.a. German Air Force __**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The //Luftwaffe// was interested in the Netherlands, as the country’s geographic location proved conducive to its interests: raids on the United Kingdom
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">As a result, the Netherlands was designated to become the main area for the air force bases from which to attack Great Britain
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The Germans started construction of 10 so-called Fliegerhorste, major military airports, on the day after the formal Dutch surrender
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">They had at least 2 or 3 hard surface runways, a dedicated railway connection, major built-up and heated repair and overhaul facilities, extensive indoor and outdoor storage spaces, and mostly housing and facilities for 2000 to 3000 men
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Each Fliegerhorst also had an auxiliary and often a decoy airfield, complete with mock-up planes made from plywood
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">However, within a year, the attack strategy had to be altered to a defensive operation as the air war cost almost 20,000 airmen (Allied and German) their lives and 6,000 planes went down over the country - an average of 3 per day during the five years of the war
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Overall, the Netherlands turned into the first line of western air defense for Germany and its industrial heartland of the Ruhrgebiet, complete with extensive flak, sound detection installations and later radar
 * **__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Forced labor __**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The //Arbeitseinsatz//—the drafting of civilians for forced labor—was imposed on the Netherlands
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Obliged every man between 18 and 45 to work in German factories, which were bombed regularly by the western Allies
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Those who refused were forced into hiding
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">As food and many other goods were taken out of the Netherlands, rationing increased (with ration cards)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The scarcity of food provoked the resistance to at times raid distribution centers to obtain ration cards to be distributed to those in hiding
 * ** __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Atlantic Wall __ **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">The Atlantic Wall—a gigantic coastal defense line—was built by the Germans along the entire European coast from southwestern France to Denmark and Norway, included the coastline of the Netherlands
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Some towns were evacuated because of this
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">3,200 houses were demolished and 2,594 were dismantled, 20,000 houses were cleared, and 65,000 people were forced to move
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">The Arbeitseinsatz forced the Dutch to work on these projects; however, a form of passive resistance took place with people working slowly or poorly
 * **__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Holocaust __**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The military regime began to persecute the Jews of the Netherlands
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">In February 1941, the Nazis deported a small group of Dutch Jews to Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The Dutch reacted with the February strike, a nationwide protest against the deportations
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Although the strike did not accomplish much—its leaders were executed—it was an initial setback for Seyss-Inquart as he had planned to both deport the Jews and to win the Dutch over to the Nazi cause
 * //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Manipulation //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">—Before the February strike, the Nazis had installed a Jewish Council: a board of Jews who served as an instrument for organizing the identification and deportation of Jews more efficiently, while the Jews on the council were told and convinced they were helping the Jews
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The Catholic Church of the Netherlands censured the government's action
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">As a result, the Nazi government treated the Dutch more harshly
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">1942—Concentration camps were built at Vught and Amersfoort
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Eventually, with the assistance of Dutch police and civil service, the majority of the Dutch Jews were deported to concentration camps
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Overall — of the 140,000 Jews who had lived in the Netherlands before 1940, only 30,000 survived the war
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">This high death toll had a number of reasons—one was because of the excellent state of Dutch civil records, as the Dutch state had recorded substantial information on every Dutch national, which allowed the Nazi regime to determine easily who was Jewish via the data
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Also, because Jews needed to hide in others' homes and many people ended up helping them—a crime punishable by death—despite the risks, many Dutch people helped Jews
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">As a result, one-third of the people who hid Jews did not survive the war


 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">What were the motivations/methods/outcomes of resistance and collaboration? How did this affect the Occupied Territory after the war? Use case studies to illustrate. **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Motivations/methods/outcomes of resistance
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The Dutch resistance developed relatively slowly, but its counter-intelligence, domestic sabotage, and communications networks provided key support to Allied forces beginning in 1944 and through the liberation of the country
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">However, discovery by the Germans of involvement in the resistance meant an immediate death sentence, which proved very risky
 * //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Difficulties //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">: The country's terrain, lack of wilderness and dense population made it difficult to conceal any illicit activities, and it was bordered by German-controlled territory, offering no escape route, except by sea
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Resistance in the Netherlands took the form of small-scale, decentralized cells engaged in independent activities
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The communists CPN however organized resistance from the start of the war
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Liberal democratic resisters who were to the Dutch government-in-exile in London, the LKP ("Nationale Knokploeg", or National Force Units, literal translation "Brawl Crew"), one of the largest resistance groups, numbering around 550 active participants
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Heavily targeted by Nazi intelligence for destruction due to its links with England
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Hiding & Sheltering
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">People known as “onderduikers” conducted one of the riskiest activities was hiding and sheltering refugees and enemies of the Nazi regime
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Later in the war, these people protected downed Allied airmen
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Motivations/methods/outcomes of collaboration
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Not all Dutch offered active or passive resistance against the German occupation
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Some Dutch men and women chose or were forced to collaborate with the German regime or joined the German army
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Some were actively involved in capturing hiding Jews for a price and delivering them to the German occupiers
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging (NSB) was the only legal political party in the Netherlands from 1941 and was actively involved in collaboration with the German occupiers
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">When WWII broke out, the NSB sympathized with the Germans, but advocated strict neutrality for the Netherlands
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">However, after the German invasion, 10,000 NSB members and sympathizers were put in custody by the Dutch government
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">When the German regime had outlawed all socialist and communist parties in 1940 and in 1941, it forbade all parties, except for the NSB
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">This lead to the NSB openly collaborating with the occupation forces
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">As a result NSB membership grew to about 100,000




 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Effects on the Netherlands after the war
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">After the war, some who were thought to have collaborated with the Germans were lynched or otherwise punished without a trial
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">This is because in order for the resistance to succeed, it was sometimes necessary for its members to //feign// collaboration with the Germans—hence after the war, this led to difficulties for those who pretended to collaborate when they could not prove they had been in the resistance—something that was difficult because it was in the nature of the job to keep it a secret
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Men who had fought with the Germans were used to clear minefields and suffered losses accordingly
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Others were sentenced by courts for treason
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Some were proven to have been wrongly arrested and were cleared of charges, sometimes after having been in custody for a long period of time
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">The Dutch government initially developed plans to annex a sizable portion of Germany (Bakker-Schut Plan), either with or without German population — which in the latter case would have to be "Dutchified" — doubling the land area of the Netherlands
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">This plan was dropped after an Allied refusal
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">After the German signing of surrender on May 6, 1945, the NSB was outlawed
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Mussert was arrested the following day
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Many of the members of the NSB were arrested, but few were convicted; those who were included Mussert, who was executed on May 7, 1946
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">There were no attempts to continue the organization illegally


 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">What were the effects of occupation on women & youth in the Occupied Territory? Use case studies to illustrate. **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The women and children were significantly affected by the occupation
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Because of many Jews being arrested, Jewish children were least likely to survive
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Many fathers and brothers were interned as prisoners of war, and that resulted in the women and children being left behind with no one to support them
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Others were drafted for slave labor in Germany
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Many of the Dutch institutions were allowed to function as long as they did not interfere with Nazi policy, schools continued to operate
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">In the schools, the students ignored the propaganda that permeated the country and the teachers kept quiet about the government
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Overall, it was a very anti-German environment:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">However, the Germans did not try to forcefully educate the students like they did in their own country
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">The children suffered from starvation despite the racial connection between the Dutch and the “master Aryan race”

__**<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Bibliography **__ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Lagrou, Pieter. The Legacy of Nazi Occupation: Patriotic Memory and National Recovery in Western Europe, 1945-1965. Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP, 2004. Questia School. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Spoerer, Mark and Fleischhacker, Jochen. “Forced Laborers in Nazi Germany: Categories, Numbers, and Survivors”. //The Journal of Interdisciplinary History// Vol. 33, No. 2 (Autumn, 2002), pp. 169-204. //JSTOR//. Web. 20 November 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3656586>.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Spoerer, Mark and Fleischhacker, Jochen. “The Compensation of Nazi Germany's Forced Labourers: Demographic Findings and Political Implications”. //Population Studies// Vol. 56, No. 1 (Mar., 2002), pp. 5-21. //JSTOR//. Web. 20 November 2013. < http://www.jstor.org/stable/3092938>.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Tammes, Peter. “Jewish Immigrants in the Netherlands during the Nazi Occupation”. //The Journal of Interdisciplinary History// Vol. 37, No. 4 (Spring, 2007), pp. 543-562. //JSTOR.// Web. 20 November 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4139477>.