Westland (Nazi propaganda)
Westland is the name with which the government of Nazi Germany intended to replace that of the Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland; German: Niederlande) during its 1940–45 occupation of the country. The name refers to the fact that the Netherlands lies directly to the west of Germany, hence "the land of the West".[1] Compare Ostmark, the name adopted for Austria after the Anschluss by the Nazi movement.
Gaue, all of which remained unnamed:[4]
- ;
- Gelderland and Overijssel, capital: Arnhem;
- North Holland and Utrecht, capital: Amsterdam;
- South Holland and Zeeland, capital: The Hague;
- North Brabant and Limburg, capital: Eindhoven.
During this period the name was also adopted by the Nazis for, amongst others:
- One of the main Dutch volunteers, the Standarte Westland.
- Uitgeverij Westland, a "fascist, and pro-German propaganda.[5]
- A political-scientific periodical journal edited by Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the senior administrator of the civilian occupation regime in the Netherlands.[6]
In a wider political context the term was also prominently used by a number of Nazi scholars in the above-mentioned Westland journal to describe the entire frontier area between Central Europe (the "
racial connection to the Germanic realm".[8] It was further purported that England subsequently tried to exploit Franco-German hostility by turning the area into "an instrument in its balance of power politics".[8] It was thus deemed that one of Nazi Germany's main purposes in the present conflict would be to "restore the Westland for all time to its position dictated by natural law as the Westmark of the Germanic center of Europe", and to "once again take up its watch" at the mouths of the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt rivers.[8]
See also
References
- ^ State, Paul F. (2008). A Brief History of the Netherlands. Infobase Publishing, p. 191. [1]
- ^ Rich, Norman (1974). Hitler's War Aims: the Establishment of the New Order. W.W. Norton & Company Inc., p. 143.
- ^ De Jong, Louis (1969). Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de tweede wereldoorlog: Voorspel. Vol. 1. M. Nijhoff, p. 97. (in Dutch) [2]
- ^ De Jong, Louis (1969). Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Part 5, Vol. 1. M. Nijhoff, p. 250. (in Dutch) [3]
- ^ De Wulf, Jeroen (2010). Spirit of Resistance: Dutch Clandestine Literature During the Nazi Occupation. Camden House, p. 51. [4]
- ^ Schöffer, Dr. I. (1978). Het nationaal-socialistische beeld van de geschiedenis der Nederlanden. H&S Publishers, p. 271. (in Dutch)
- ^ Rich 1974, p. 170.
- ^ a b c Rich 1974, p. 171.