National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands
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National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland | |
---|---|
Leader | Anton Mussert |
Founder | Anton Mussert Cornelis van Geelkerken |
Founded | 14 December 1931 |
Banned | 6 May 1945 |
Headquarters | Utrecht, Netherlands |
Newspaper | Volk en Vaderland |
Student wing | Nederlandsche Nationaal-Socialistische Studentenfederatie Nationaal Socialistisch Studentenfront |
Youth wing | Nationale Jeugdstorm |
Paramilitary wing | Weerbaarheidsafdeling |
Membership (1944) | 101,314 |
Ideology | Nazism Fascism Dutch nationalism Dutch irredentism Collaborationism |
Political position | Far-right |
Colors | Red Black |
Party flag | |
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The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (
Party history
1931–1940
The NSB was founded in
In 1933, after a year of building an organization, the party organized its first public meeting, a Landdag in Utrecht which was attended by 600 party militants. Here the party presented itself. After that, the party's support began to grow. In the same year, the government forbade civil servants to be members.
In the provincial elections of 1935, the party gained almost eight percent of the votes
In 1936, under the influence of
In parliament, the NSB MPs showed little respect for parliamentary procedures and rules. Many NSB MPs were called to order by the chairman of parliament for physical and verbal violence.
In the provincial election of 1939, the party also gained four percent of the votes.
1940–1945
After the
In 1940 the German occupation government 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. On the national level, Mussert had expected he would be made leader of an independent Dutch state allied to Germany; in reality, however, the Austrian Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart was in charge of an occupation government. He chose to work with the remaining establishment as he realised that the NSB lacked popular support and talented candidates for more important functions.
Mussert had in total five meetings with Adolf Hitler in which he pleaded for an independent Netherlands, but he was unsuccessful. Although Seyss-Inquart had proposed that Mussert should be made Prime Minister of the Netherlands, he was only given the honorary title 'Leader of the Dutch People', and he was allowed to build a marginal State Secretariat, but he was given little or no actual power. His influence in the party waned at the expense of Rost van Tonningen and other more pro-German members. Unlike Mussert, Rost van Tonningen was in favour of incorporation of the Netherlands into a Greater Germanic Reich. Beginning in the summer of 1943, many male members of the NSB were organized in the Landwacht, which helped the government control the population.
On 4 September 1944, the Allied forces conquered Antwerp and the NSB expected the fall of the Netherlands to come soon. On 5 September, most of the NSB's leadership and many members fled to Germany and the party's organization fell apart, on what is known as Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday). Mussert himself spent the winter of 1944–45 at the estate of Bellinckhof, near Almelo. In these final months of the war the movement fractured further and further, and Mussert ordered measures against leaders who behaved 'dishonorably' in September 1944. In the beginning of 1945 he terminated the memberships of Rost van Tonningen and Van Geelkerken. However, at that time Musserts power was severely weakened by the war events and the fracturing of the NSB.
After the German surrender on 6 May 1945, the NSB was outlawed. Mussert was arrested the following day. Many of the members of the NSB were arrested, but only a few were convicted.
There were no attempts to continue the organization illegally. Former members were shunned and sometimes imprisoned. After that, they and their children remained stigmatized for a long time in society. The senior leadership was arrested and faced charges. Mussert was executed on 7 May 1946, Van Geelkerken was imprisoned, Rost van Tonningen committed suicide while awaiting trial.
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Ideology and issues
The NSB started out as a classical fascist party, which based itself on the principles of
Practical demands of the NSB were: abolition of
The NSB was against the current
Rituals and symbols
The NSB copied elements of the Italian Fascists and German Nazis. Like Mussolini's Fascists, the NSB uniforms included black shirts, and the Party adopted the Fascist salute. Since 1933 it used the salute "Hou Zee!", which, Anton Mussert said, connoted courage and referred to the "glorious" maritime history of the Dutch Republic. It also began using titles like Leider for Mussert (Leader; similar to Duce or Führer), Kameraad for men (comrade) and Kameraadske ('comradess', a neologism) for women. One party slogan was "Mussert or Moscow", evoking the Fascist defense against supposed Communist subversion.[6] Although the Party later adopted the Nazi red and black colors and the swastika symbol, the original NSB flag used the Prince's Flag. A blue wolfsangel (a hooked symbol of a wolf trap) on a white disc was set against an orange field.[7]
Leadership and support
This table shows the results of the NSB in elections to the
Year | HoR
|
S
|
SP
|
Fractievoorzitter
|
Lijsttrekker
|
Membership |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1933
|
0 | 0 | 0 | extra-parliamentary | no elections | 900 |
1934 | 0 | 0 | 0 | extra-parliamentary | no elections | 21000 |
1935 | 0 | 2 | 44 | Max de Marchant et d'Ansembourg[a] | no elections | 33000 |
1936 | 0 | 2 | 44 | Max de Marchant et d'Ansembourg[a] | no elections | 52000 |
1937
|
4 | 5 | 44 | Anton Mussert | Anton Mussert | 48000 |
1938 | 4 | 5 | 44 | Anton Mussert | no elections | 39000 |
1939 | 4 | 5 | 21 | Anton Mussert | no elections | 37000 |
1940 | 4 | 5 | 21 | Anton Mussert | no elections | 32000 |
1941 | German Occupation | 90788 | ||||
1942 | German Occupation | unknown | ||||
1943 | German Occupation | 99353 | ||||
1944 | German Occupation | 101314 |
Municipal and provincial government
Before 1940 the NSB held seats in
The following figure shows the election results of the provincial elections of 1935 and 1939, per province. It shows the areas where the NSB was strong, namely in South Holland, North Holland and Gelderland. The NSB was the strongest in Drenthe and Limburg. In 1935, it became the second largest party in Limburg. The party was weaker in Friesland, North Brabant and Zeeland.
In 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, the party lost nearly half of its provincial seats.
Province | Result 1935 (seats) | Result 1939 (seats) |
---|---|---|
Drenthe | 4 | 3 |
Friesland
|
1 | 0 |
Gelderland | 5 | 2 |
Groningen | 4 | 2 |
Limburg | 5 | 2 |
North Brabant | 2 | 1 |
North Holland | 7 | 4 |
Overijssel | 3 | 2 |
Utrecht | 4 | 1 |
Zeeland | 2 | 1 |
South Holland | 7 | 3 |
Electorate
The NSB drew its main support from the
Party members
Historians
Organization
Organizational structure
The party was organized with Mussert serving as
Associated organisations
The NSB was surrounded by several party organizations. It published a weekly newspaper, Volk en Vaderland ("People and Fatherland"). Between 1931 and 1935 the party had its own paramilitary organization, the black uniformed Weerbaarheidsafdeling (WA), similar to the Sturmabteilung of the Nazi Party. It was refounded in 1940.[13] It also founded its own youth organization, Nationale Jeugdstorm (Youthstorm); a farmers' organization; and a daily newspaper, Het Nationale Dagblad (The National Daily).
In 1940 the NSB formed the
The term "NSB'er" has become synonymous with traitor in the Netherlands, and is used as an insult, especially in the context of ratting somebody out to authorities.
A grim joke after World War II, made by Dutch Resistance fighters, is that former NSB members insisted that their acronym actually stood for "Niet So [zo] Bedoeld" or "I didn't mean it like that" as they attempted to downplay their treachery.
-
NSB Meeting (Utrecht 1941)
-
NSB Meeting
(The Hague 1941) -
HouZee
(The Hague 1941)
Relationships to other parties
The NSB was methodically isolated by other parties. Before the war the socialist
Electoral performance
Election | Votes | Seats | Position | Government | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | % | # | ± | |||
1937 | 171,137 | 4.2 | 4 / 100
|
6th |
See also
- Allgemeine-SSgroups that were raised in Occupied Europe between 1939 and 1945.
- Quisling
References
Notes
- ^ OCLC 52849131.
- ^ Paternotte, Bas (3 December 2015). "Mini-docu: De Muur van Mussert" (in Dutch). ThePostOnline. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
- ^ Jong 1956, p73.
- ISBN 978-0-9824911-9-5. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
- ISBN 0-19-822887-2.
- ^ "Mussert, Anton" in Current Biography 1941, p621.
- ^ "NSB (The Netherlands)". www.fotw.info.
- ^ Hans van de Wal, Een aanvechtbare en onzekere situatie, Uitgeverij Verloren, 2006, 37.
- ^ J. J. van Bolhuis, Onderdrukking en verzet: Nederland in oorlogstijd, volume 2, Van Loghum Slaterus, 1981, 452.
- ^ Herman Selderhuis, Handboek Nederlandse kerkgeschiedenis.
- ^ Tini Visser, Jaren van verduistering, AUP.
- Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden(2009) 124#3, pp 329-348
- ^ "De WA (Weerbaarheidsafdeling) van de NSB". Europeana (in Dutch). Retrieved 8 September 2014.
General references
- Jong, Loe de (1956). German Fifth Column in the Second World War. Routledge & Kegan Paul.