It's that time of year again to publish books about World War II. The book Error! van het Historisch Nieuwsblad, an 'anthology' of national socialist articles from the war years.
Error! What Dutch Nazi newspapers wrote about the Netherlands, Jews and the resistance, compiled by historian Bas Kromhout, is not an ordinary reading book. Articles from National Socialist newspapers and magazines make up the bulk of the book. They are illustrated with beautiful photos of mainly well-known propaganda material and next to the articles are fine boxes with explanations about the terms and personal names used.
This layout makes it possible to start where you want or to read small pieces. Design and size (132 pages) make it a freely accessible leaf book. But it's not a very pleasant read, and I'm not talking about the anti-Semitic content. The editors have modernized the writing style, but many articles are still on the dry side.
Confiscated
The creation of Error! did not go without a fight. After the war, the copyrights of National Socialist books, newspapers and magazines came into the hands of the government, which prohibited republishing. Digitization of these sources on the online archive delpher.nl has been cautiously permitted in recent years to promote scientific research. The enormous amount of publications is therefore more manageable and research is now slowly getting underway. This is important, because it is precisely in something as mundane as a newspaper article that the spirit of the times comes to the fore. In this way, the book provides an interesting insight into the perceptions and ideas of National Socialists.
For this book, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek has searched for striking examples from well-known national socialist (daily) newspapers such as The black soldier, Storm and the National newspaper. The selected articles are then organized into five themes, on which five different historians also comment. A bit confusing here is that the historians do not specifically respond to the theme on which their comments are posted, but to all the articles in the book.
Historian Bas Kromhout is responsible for both the general introduction and the introduction per theme. It is nice to read that not all five historians agree with him and share this with the reader in their comments. Kromhout argues, for example, that the radicalism of the NSB has long been relativized and that historians have only recently started to voice a dissenting voice. The book also shows that radical NSB. Chris van der Heijden, one of the historians who comments, argues on the contrary that the anti-Semitism of the NSB is indeed moderate compared to the German Nazis, even though the members of the Dutch branch were not sweethearts.
Shocking and recognizable
The first theme, 'The New Order', deals with the enthusiastic publications about the new Netherlands under the leadership of the NSB. Just after the occupation it looked as if this dream would come true, but the Germans kept a firm grip on things. Theme two is about the Antis, opponents of the NSB in their own country. National Socialists mainly target communists and resistance fighters annex terrorists.
NSB leader Anton Mussert is especially surprised about the massive strike in February 1941 after a large-scale roundup of Jews. Why didn't the Dutch go on strike earlier, when there was no work for them during the crisis? The satirical magazine De Gil pokes fun at the humorlessness of the illegal press. The theme about the World War mainly contains propaganda material, especially when the war is coming to an end and there is actually no more positive front news to report.
The truly shocking articles, full of anti-Semitic stereotypes of inferior and parasitic Jews, can be found in the themes Anti-Semitism and Blood and Soil. The authors see a large and powerful Jewish conspiracy behind the scenes everywhere, both among the Russian communists and the western allies. Readers also have their say in letters to the editor, such as in the magazine De Misthoorn of May 1942:“It sounds very nice 'Forbidden for Jews'. But practice shows that people… do not pay much attention to the prohibitions. Why are Jews still allowed to go to barbers, so that brushes, scissors and razors that touch their Jewish face will work on my head later?” A few months later, most of the Jews would have been deported to concentration camps.
But it was not only the NSB that was guilty of anti-Semitism, as historian Evelien Gans also writes in her commentary:“In 1934 the Dutch government enacted a law against deliberate insulting of a population group, because insulting 'our Israelite 'epidemic character'. Even after the war, anti-Semitism lived on and not just among ex-NSB members.”
Divided Opinions
Chris van der Heijden sharply notes that there are quite a few articles in the book that you can now also encounter in the newspaper. Think of the ban on ritual slaughter and figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics on criminal populations. And we also find subjects that raise hopes at all times, such as forced sterilization. To the surprise of Dr. Scalonge, chief of the GGD:“..they are all fighting for the rights of life, what am I saying, for the right to progeny of drooling idiots, jaded lunatics and mentally deranged epileptics.”
On the other hand, we must not forget that the articles were written in a different, more discriminatory, time. We now find pieces about 'interracial' marriages shocking, but they were also a no go for many non-NSB members. .
All in all, historians do not agree with each other and this book with NSB publications has not changed that. In fact, the book exposes it by giving space to different opinions and interpretations of the sources. The discussion that will result is the greatest added value of this umpteenth publication about the Second World War during the May days.
Title:Wrong! What Dutch Nazi newspapers wrote about the Netherlands, Jews and the resistance
Author:Bas Kromhout with comments by Ad van Liempt, Evelien Gans, Chris van der Heijden, Bart van der Boom and Jolande Withuis.
Publisher:Veen Media
132 pages EUR 24.95
ISBN 9789085715146