M.F.L.ROOS
Worldwar II in the Netherlands
Experienced by a Dutchman who was there.
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Introduction and comments
Introduction to a speech by 'Reichscomissar' Seys Inquart
Speech by Seys Inquart
Personal experiences
The principality in Septimania
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[ I ]
INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTS
The direct experience of the Dutch with WW II lasted from 05-10-1940 till 05-05-1945.
I was involved in many things that where going on, but the most unnerving was my time as a hostage of the Germans. This experience can be divided I 4 stages:
Seminarie Haaren – 06-13-1942 – 10-15-1942
Seminarie St.Michels Gestel – 10-15-1942 – 12-23-1942
Weekly reporting to the local police – 12-23-1942 – 01-10-1944
Under suspicion – the whole war.
About some of my experiences as a hostage, see section 4.
The reason why the Germans didn't know trust me, were the following. Although my grandfather from mother's side was a German (he fought in the German-French war of 1870-1871, which gave rise to the German Empire)- I never liked there "Deutschland, Deutschland Uber Alles" their composer Wagner, the Wodan and Siegried culture, although I had to admit that a substantial part of the European culture, science came from Germany. It was, is and will be true that the Germans are energetic, hard-working and that Europe without a strong Germany to counterbalance the French feelings of superiority, is nowhere. It always was a standard expression of the German people: " Was wir nicht wissen, konnen wir lernen- What we don't know, we can learn.
But that didn't mean that I had to accept that they were fit to rule the World, Europe, let alone the world. There cooperation was welcome, their input valued. I could not accept their idea that they had a license to kill men, women and children as long as it were Jews. I did not have to subscribe to their warped Idea that Jews were no human beings. I certainly did not accept over running my country only because it fitted in their plan to ruin their eternal enemy France and by crossing the maginot line - fortifications along the French-German border, which according to the fantasies of the French generals was invincible. In the back of their minds what's the wish to take revenge of the treatment after World War I by another Frenchman- Le Tigre (the tiger) – Clemenceau who was bent on reducing Germany to third-rate State, against the vehement protests of the American president Wilson, who clearly saw that this was inviting hate, unrest and desire for revenge. He never got the support of the American contest for it and this make it impossible for the United States to join the League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations. This mistake not repeated after World War II.
I would not have been the "stubborn" Dutchman if I would have accepted all this laying down.
But not only because I was "against" that they kept a weary eye on me,they also suspected me of ties with the British Secret Service and with the French Maquis. They weren't too far off. It sounds more or less crazy now, but in those hectic days it wasn't.
Of course there were several reasons for the Germans to do as they did, settle things to war if their demands or aspirations were not met.
The first I already mentioned, Clemenceau. The peace treaty of 1918 in Versailles left the Germans not much to live for. Enormous reparation payments in money, products and services. The outlook for the future was bleak and became a fertile soil for not only socialism, but also communism. On top of that there was a deep feeling in the German people that the Versailles treaty was unjust and that they were not to blame for the war. That we heard again some 20 years later.
So the second war was an outgrowth of the first and Wilson was right. I can illustrate my point and give a hint of the third reason by a personal experience. The situation in Germany in the years 1920 to 1924 was very bad. No jobs, hunger, not much of a future, all the things of a defeated country with a determined enemy.
I can illustrate this and give a hint for the third reason by a personal experience. In 1924 I paid a short visit to Germany with my father and solve the following in Duisburg, something I never forgot. Imagine a restaurant with a big glass window. At tables right at those windows were sitting well-fed and well-filled Jewish families, and on the outside small children with hungry eyes and their noses against the glass, looking at all the food they could not have. The worst part was that these Jews poked fun at the kids. This brings me to the third reason, the Jews.
In general there were two types of Jews, the Askenase Jews from East Germany and the Slavonic countries and the Seraphanic Jews from Roman countries (France, Spain). The latter group was an altogether different class, from them came the majority of Jewish intellect. From the Askanase Jews to a large extent the traders and labor. What I saw were Askanase Jews.
Of course these were not the mainstream Jew, but when hate is involved and when you play on the lower sentiments of the people, of people who think they have been wronged, the younger generation who think that they have no future, then there are no exceptions, all is caught under one cloak, anti-semitism. I worked for a Jewish company, I had many Jewish friends and I saw another side of their character, Progressive, treating their people well. So that German anti-semitism and other reason to be "against".
The Jews were no saints, they have their shortcomings, just as every other race including the Germans, and not to forget the Dutch, French, British and Americans.
With some of their shortcomings they are confronted from their birth, I mean being subjected to a never-ending indoctrination. They are told that they are the "chosen" people of God, the God of Abraham, that only they know the truth and that they have to spread their message all over the world. This conviction breeds corruption of the mind. The Jews are not always very modest, but so are other people: La Gloire de France, Deutschland uber alles, Brittania rules the waves, God's own country. In the Bible they are often portrayed as killers, but in 1948 years they didn't start a war, and then I made of the Near East a place on edge. Their promised land is the same as the Chosen People. In those 1948 years they did not kill people who did not believe as they did. Christianity, Islam and national-socialists show and other picture.
Many Jews have contributed to society in a way that still vibrates through that society: Spinoza ,Disreali, Einstein, to name a few. Not all people can take that and among them often the lower strata of societies from which Germany the SA, Hitler, Himler, Goebbels, Rosenberg, Franck,ect. Recruited. As always there are two sides to a problem.
On the other hand anti-semitism is not a problem from modern times only.
As for their hate for that Jews, one has to take the following into account. During the middle ages the people were kept in the dark, all knowledge was concentrated in the priesthood, Catholic and Jewish. Many kings and noblemen could not read or write. Jewish clergy could marry, get children and passed their intellect on to their off-spring. Not so in the Catholic camp, the intelligence of the clergy was never passed on (except for some sinning in certain quarters). For a large part of the territory where the Progroms occurred, coincided with that part of the world were the Roman-Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches had the upper hand, Spain, Italy but most Central and East Germany, Poland and Russia [ Christendom has for a long time considered the Jews as Christ-murderers]. After the Merovinger empire was lost to the Carolingers in the first Millennium A.C., the new Kings, after a period of peaceful coexistence, did away with the Jews living on the border between France and Spain. In most protestant countries the Jews were welcome. They were fugitives from Spain, Portugal, Italy and France. They settled in their new countries and as always with the Jews through the whole history, they assimilated and became an integral part of the scientific, art and commercial part of society. Western Europe could take that, not the rest of Europe.
Of course, one has to admit that some Jews fell in the old trap throughout their history they knew too well that they were clever and too often let it be known and often did a lot of less respectable scheming. Read the story in section E.
And than there was the mystic side of the German character, the side of Wodan, Siegried, Triatan and Isolde, the Graal. Anyone who knew how to play on that knew how to get German feelings of being better than the rest of the world, knew how to play on "Deutschland Uber Alles", on their love for uniforms, saber-rattling, heels klicking and such, could get hold of them. That's why they made a mystic figure of Hitler. He knew how to play on their basic instincts.
The first year of the war, the German army was in charge and then the Nazzi's took over. Holland got governor, Seyss-Inquart, an Austian. A little man who walked with a limp. I saw him in the camp in the Saint Michel's Gestel where desperately tried to get contact with the prisoners. No success and he left with all kinds of threats, what was to be expected.
In the end of February 1941 there were riots in Amsterdam and a few other cities in the Province of North Holland, because of the taking of the Jews in the Jordaan, the Jewish part of Amsterdam, and transporting them to the deathcamps in Germany and Poland.
Two weeks later Seyss-Inquart thought it advisable to give a warning do the Dutch people, he spoke into Concert Gebouw, a pity the rest of the nation could not hear it because all the radios were confiscated, but we wouldn't have listened anyhow, the BBC was much more interesting. The speech was printed and distributed. Here is the whole story to give you an Idea how the Nazzi's thought about themselves.
The department of information what's responsible for it and was headed by a turncoat, a Dutch Nazzi. This is the introduction in full. That speech was in German and as often in that language with very complicated sentences. The speech could not be heard over the radio as they were all confiscated, radio Orange from London was too dangerous. The translation in Dutch tried to follow the original speech word-for-word and moreover in the old spelling, no longer in use. This made it hard to translate the story in English, the more so as even for an eyewitness from those times, it was not always clear what the man was saying. So forgive me if the English is not up to standard.
From here on I am following the introduction section B and the speech of Seyss-Inquart section C.
About the 5-day war with a different meaning, the remarks about the old and new Europe and the Dutch I have this to say. Where did he get the idea of a revolution, if this was not a war what is it then? A real war? I thought old Europe was a society of Kings, knights and priests under-educated, hard-working people. They had no representation at the courts, in the palaces of the bishop and rectories, they had no hand in the government of their country, they only could serve. And it should be clear on which side this Dutchman considered his bread was buttered. Not a very admirable story. But Seyss-Inquart did even better.
Talking about the unrest in Amsterdam the little man Seyss-Inquart showed his colors. Amsterdam was and still is a mixture of labor, people with connections all over the world, the arts, a mixture of different nationalities and finally a large Jewish segment. And then Seyss could not leave the Jews alone to which I have to speak my mind. If you want to see an up-side-down reasoning, then here is one. Who came in the country uninvited, killed, destroyed, but according to Seyss that for German people where the victims. For five years we were occupied, they tried to feed us that bunk. those poor Germans. 85 million of them, harassed and attacked by a couple of hundred thousands of Jews. The big German lie but the justification for Hitler and his criminal friends to kill, not only man, woman, but also children who were innocent of the crimes the Jews were accused of. But the warning from the German side did not help. Things became more difficult and dangerous for the Germans, and if ever, the Dutch have never been more united. What politicians and churches could not do, did the Germans, they made one people out of these stubborn, independent thinking Dutchman. Who by the way never surrendered to the Germans.
The warning against striking, understandable, did not make much of an impression. The underground movement became stronger, more daring.
And Seyss-Inquart tried to make friends in the labor unions. What he said was clearly meant as a sop for the unions, pity that it didn't work, the unions were Dutch not nazzi's and more so after the Germans killed a few labor leaders who kept their own counsel, they certainly did not need advice from the Germans, where the labor unions were outlawed, how to run their business. I am trying to imagine how this would be received, would play in the American society.
And now a piece of History oh, the development of the historical Genesis. Seyss-Inquart in implying here, just as all the Germans did, that the Dutch were still apart of German people. It is true that they have the same roots, Indo-Germanic, Germanic, but there it stops. Because of their position on the shores of the North Sea, and being a small country, their eyes, and practically all their eyes, were looking out to sea, to other coasts, and continents, people and cultures. They had developed a large colonial Empire, second only to the British and as consequence they became and had to become tolerant and color blind, open to all races and creeds. The Dutch were no saints. But then you will not find saints on Earth and it has been my contention all along that there are many other places in our universe were, if they exist, saints might be found but we don't know much about that, so we can't be sure.