On May 4, 1945, British field marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery accepted the unconditional surrender of the German forces in the Netherlands, almost exactly five years after Nazi Germany invaded the country.
Around a quarter of a million Dutch people died in the war. Its memory became a political and moral touchstone in Dutch society. Few questions were more important than whether someone had been “right” or “wrong” — whether they had resisted the occupation or collaborated with the Nazis.
Prewar fascism was a relatively small movement in the Netherlands, with the Dutch National Socialist Movement (NSB) receiving just over 4 percent in the last elections before the war. After liberation, being called an NSB member was one of the worse possible insults, while there was no greater honor than recognition as a former member of “the resistance.”
Many members of the Dutch resistance had been conservative Christians, as one might expect in a country that was still deeply religious. Patriotic and monarchist, they fit well in the postwar myth of a unified nation that had heroically resisted foreign occupation.
There were always problems with this narrative. Over 100,000 Dutch Jews, three-quarters of the Jewish population, had been murdered. In no other West European country had the Nazi murder campaign against Jews been so deadly. Part of the reason for this was that Dutch officials conscientiously carried out their instructions, including those for the arrest and deportation of entire families.
Another obstacle to the national resistance myth was…
Auteur: Alex de Jong
