The Dutch Resistance During WWII

As they had done during the first world war, at the onset of World War II, the Netherlands declared neutrality. However, on May 10, 1940, Germany bombed Rotterdam, then simultaneously invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg without a formal declaration of war. The royal family fled to London, and the Dutch army fell almost immediately. Five days later the country signed a surrender document.

Martial law was implemented for a short time while the royal family was invited to return, so Germany set up an occupation government. Their approach, referred to as “velvet glove” by several scholars, was to keep repression and economic extraction low in the hope to appease the Dutch people. Reports indicate that there was a high level of collaboration, either by choice or by force.

The day after the invasion the Communist Party of the Netherlands met to organize resistance including

the distribution of leaflets and publication of De Waarheid (The Truth). They also participated in the 1941 February Strike, a country-wide labor strike. Other organized resistance bubbled up slowly, but individuals hid Jews and onderduikers (literally undergrounders-those looking to avoid deportation or avoid arrest), and forged or stole ration and identity cards.

Eventually, the following organizations were founded:

• Raad van Verzet (Council of Resistance): Founded after the strikes in 1943, this group attempted to coordinate all armed resistance. Unsuccessful, they became a separate organization, conducting their own raids, sabotage, and assassinations.
• Naationaal Comite: All initially founded to act as a coordinator of activities, this group was fairly small and composed of high-standing businessmen who gathered, analyzed, and passed on intelligence.
• Landelijke Organisatie voor Hulp aan Onderduikers (National Organization for Helping People in Hiding): Founded in 1942 by Helena Kuipers-Rietberg and Frits Slomp, this highly successful group created an extensive illegal social services network to hide and provide financial support to people in hiding. This group also provided couriers to lead refugees and downed airmen out of the country.
• Landelikje Knokploeg (National Assault Group-literally brawl crew or goon squad): This organization performed sabotage, raids to steal ration cards, and assassinations. There were more than 2,700 members.
• CS-6 (Thought to be named for the address where it was founded): Considered a radical group, CS-6 only had about forty members, but committed at least twenty assassinations, if not more. They targeted high-ranking Dutch collaborators and traitors.
• The Naationaal Steunfunds (National Financial Aid): This group’s primary role was to collect and distribute funds for aid to the onderduikers as well as coordinate relief activities.

Both Reformed and Catholic churches conducted resistance activities: condemning Nazi laws and actions, denounced anti-Semitism, made funds available, and secreted Jews, refugees, downed airmen, and others within their walls.

Britain’s Special Operations Executive also aided the resistance with mixed success. Agents were parachuted into the Netherlands to recruit and train resisters. SOE also provided weapons. Unfortunately, the office in England failed to realize that one of the networks had been infiltrated and over fifty agents were captured and eleven RAF planes shot down over the course of about eighteen months.

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Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and

women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled Banner fame) and has lived in historical places all her life. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII and a former trustee for her local public library. She now lives in central New Hampshire where she explores the history of this great state and immerses herself in the imaginary worlds created by other authors.

A Lesson in Love

He thinks he’s too old. She thinks she’s too young. Can these teachers learn that love defies all boundaries?

Born and raised in London, Isobel Turvine knows nothing about farming, but after the students in her school evacuate during Operation Pied Piper, she’s left with little to do. Her friend talks her into joining the Women’s Land Army, and she finds herself working the land at a manor home in Yorkshire that’s been converted to a boys’ school. A teacher at heart, she is drawn to the lads, but the handsome yet stiff-necked headmaster wants her to stick to farming.

Left with an arm that barely works from the last “war to end all wars,” Gavin Emerson agrees to take on the job of headmaster when his school moves from London to Yorkshire, but he’s saddled with the quirky manor owner, bickering among his teachers, and a gaggle of Land Army girls who have turned the grounds into a farm. When the group’s blue-eyed, blonde leader nearly runs him down in a car, he admonishes her to stay in the fields, but they are thrown together at every turn. Can he trust her not to break his heart?

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Sources:
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000709432.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_resistance

https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/dutch-citizens-resist-nazi-occupation-1940-1945
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/march-6/dutch-resistance-ambushes-ss-officer-unwittingly
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/jewish-resistance-amsterdam
The Dutch Resistance Revealed by Jos Scharrer, Pen and Sword Military Publishers, 2018

Photos:

Windmill: Pixabay/ Adam Bortnowski

Newspaper: Pixabay/Andrys Stienstra

Church: Pixabay/Kevin Seibel