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From: Michel Couzijn 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish.holocaust
Subject: National-socialism, antisemitism and The Netherlands
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 21:24:44 GMT
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On Thu, 24 Jun 1999 22:34:43 GMT, PKJ
 wrote:

>unlike in countires as the Netherlands or Belgium, 
>National Socialism never was a big "hit" in Denmark

At the risk of sounding apologetic, I take the liberty
of presenting some plain facts about the supposedly 'big hit'
that national-socialism is said to have been in The 
Netherlands (according to PKJ).

There has been only one national-socialistic political
party in The Netherlands, the NSB (Nationaal-Socialistische
Beweging), which became active since 1932. In the beginning,
their ideology and propaganda did not include antisemitism
or racialist views, to the effect that there were also Jews 
among its members. Their ideology was fascist in that it 
advocated a strong government, abolishment of individual 
voting rights, corporate ordering, planned economy, working 
duties, and limits to the freedom of press.

With propaganda based on these principles - and a bad economy
as an aid - this protest party grew to 40.000 members in 1935
(less than one percent of Dutch adults). At the elections of 
1935, the party made their only 'bit hit' by scoring 7.9% of 
the votes in the parliamentary elections. 

>From then on, the party and its cadre radicalised their
ideology, to the effect that voters turned away. In 1937,
the party was halved (4%) and got even less voters in 1939.
No other political party allied with them, so their influence
on Dutch politics remained very small, if there was any.


The radicalisation of the party since 1935 included anti-jewish
propaganda, solidarity with the agressive politics of Germany
and Italy, and incidental provocations and riots on the
streets. For these reasons, many voters or sympathizers
turned away and the party got isolated, to the extent that
NSB-sympathizers were generally hated by the great majority
of the Dutch people.

After Germany had occupied The Netherlands, the small group
of NSB members and their police-like department (the WA) were
used as collaborators, to the effect that they were even
more hated by the Dutch. When the WA started anti-Jewish
actions in 1941, it immediately led to the famous 
'February-strike' in and around Amsterdam. That was one
of the very rare mass protests by non-Jews who openly
opposed the German treatment of Jews. 

In sum, the 'big hit' of national-socialism in The Netherlands,
was not really that 'big', and got even smaller after the
national-socialist party became openly antisemitic.


Michel Couzijn
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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