Dutch collaborators in World War II.

18-04-2020

Not all Dutch offered active or passive resistance against the German occupation. Some Dutch men and women chose or were forced to collaborate with the German regime or joined the German army (which usually would mean being placed in the Waffen-SS). Others, like members of the 35 men of the  Henneicke Column, between March and October 1943, led by former auto mechanic Wim Henneicke

  85892-med and Willem Hendrik Benjamin Briedé,  were responsible for fanatic tracking down Jews in hiding and arresting them. They were actively involved in capturing hiding Jews for a price and delivering them to the German occupiers. It is estimated that Henneicke Column captured around 8.000-9.000 Dutch Jews who were ultimately sent to their death in the German death camps.The bounty paid to Henneicke Column members for each captured Jew was 7.50 guilders (equivalent to about US$ 47.50).Wim Henneicke was assassinated by the Dutch resistance in December 1944 in Amsterdam. Willem Briedé escaped the country and settled in Germany. In 1949 he was tried by a Dutch court in absentia and received the death penalty. The sentence was never carried out; Briedé died of natural causes in Germany in January 1962.

The National Socialistische Beweging (NSB) was the only legal political party in the Netherlands from 1941 and was actively involved in collaboration with the German occupiers. In 1941, when Germany still seemed certain to win the war, about three percent of the adult male population belonged to the NSB.

After World War II broke out, the NSB sympathized with the Germans, but nevertheless advocated strict neutrality for the Netherlands. In May 1940, after the German invasion, 10.000 NSB members and sympathizers were put in custody by the Dutch government. Soon after the Dutch defeat on 14 May 1940, they were set free by German troops. In June 1940, NSB leader Anton Mussert held a speech in Lunteren in which he called for the Dutch to embrace the Germans and renounce the Dutch Monarchy  which had fled to London.

Musser was executed  in the Dutch dunes age 51 on 07-05-1946.

In 1940, the German regime had outlawed all socialist and communist parties; in 1941, it forbade all parties, except for the NSB. The NSB openly collaborated with the occupation forces. Its membership grew to about 100.000. The NSB played an important role in lower government and civil service; every new mayor appointed by the German occupation government was a member of the NSB.

After the German signing of surrender on May 6, 1945, the NSB was outlawed. Mussert was arrested the following day. 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. There were no attempts to continue the organization illegally.

In September 1940, the Nederlandse SS

    was formed as “Afdeling XI” (Department XI) of the NSB. It was the equivalent to the Allgemeine SS in Germany. In November 1942 its name was changed in Germaansche SS in Nederland . The Nederlandsche SS was primarily a political formation but also served as manpower reservoir for the Waffen SS.

 Between 20.000 and 25.000 Dutchmen volunteered to serve in the Heer and the Waffen SS. The most notable formations were the 4th SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Brigade Nederland which saw action exclusively on the Eastern Front and the SS Volunteer Grenadier Brigade Landstorm Nederland which fought in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The Nederland brigade participated in fighting on the Eastern Front during the Battle of Narva, with several soldiers receiving the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, Nazi Germany’s highest award for bravery Nazi Germany’s highest award for bravery.

Women accused of collaborating with the Germans wait to be marched through the streets by the Dutch resistance. The womens’ heads were shaved in preparation for their public humiliation.

Many after the war executed Dutch collaborators are buried on the German War Cemetery of Ysselstein.

 

 

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