page_title: Netherlands in World War II
section_title: Life in the occupied Netherlands
hierarchical_section_title: Netherlands in World War II / German occupation / Life in the occupied Netherlands
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Massale colportage met het NSB-weekblad 'Volk en Vaderland' in Amsterdam door functionarissen van het Hoofdkwartier in de buurt van de Albert Cuyp. Met de leus: “ Ons nationalisme uw redding, ons socialisme uw toekomst” voerde de NSB gedurende drie maanden de actie “ De Strijd om Amsterdam” , van 04-03-1944 tot en met 15-06-1944. Deze foto is afkomstig uit het archief van de Fotodienst der NSB.
context_page_description: Despite being neutral, the Netherlands was invaded by Nazi Germany on 10 May 1940, as part of Fall Gelb. On 15 May 1940, one day after the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces surrendered. The Dutch government and the royal family saved themselves by deserting their country and going to London. Princess Juliana and her children moved on to Canada for additional safety.
  The Netherlands was placed under German occupation, which endured in some areas until the German surrender in May 1945. Active resistance was carried out by a minority, which grew in the course of the occupation. The occupiers deported the majority of the country's Jews to Nazi concentration camps.
  Due to the high variation in the survival rate of Jewish inhabitants among local regions in the Netherlands, scholars have questioned the validity of a single explanation at the national level. In part due to the well-organized population registers, about 70% of the country's Jewish population were killed during the conflict, a much higher percentage than either Belgium or France.
context_section_description: Initially, the Netherlands was placed under German military control. However, following the refusal of the Dutch government to return, the Netherlands was placed under control by a German civilian governor on 29 May 1940, unlike France or Denmark which had their own governments, and Belgium, which was under German military control. The civil government, the Reichskommissariat Niederlande, was headed by the Austrian Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart.
  The German occupiers implemented a policy of Gleichschaltung ("enforced conformity" or "coordination"), and systematically eliminated non-Nazi organizations. In 1940, the German regime more or less immediately outlawed all Socialist and Communist parties; in 1941, it forbade all parties, except for the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands.
  Gleichschaltung was an enormous shock to the Dutch, who had traditionally had separate institutions for all main religious groups, particularly Catholic and Protestant, because of decades of pillarisation. The process was opposed by the Catholic Church in the Netherlands, and, in 1941, all Roman Catholics were urged by Dutch bishops to leave associations that had been Nazified.
  A long-term aim of the Nazis was to incorporate the Netherlands into the Greater Germanic Reich. Hitler thought very highly of the Dutch people, who were considered to be fellow members of the Aryan "master race".
  Initially, Seyss-Inquart applied the 'velvet glove' approach; by appeasing the population he tried to win them for the national socialist ideology. It meant that he kept repression and economic extraction as low as possible, and tried to cooperate with the elite and government officials in the country. There was also a realistic reason behind this: the NSB offered insufficient candidates and had no great popular support. The German market went open and Dutch companies benefited greatly from export to Germany, even if this might be seen as collaboration in case of goods which might be used for German war efforts. In any case, despite the British victory in the Battle of Britain, many considered a German victory a realistic possibility and it would therefore be wise to side with the winner. As a result, and due to the ban on other political parties, the NSB grew rapidly. Although gasoline pumps were already sealed in 1940, the occupation seemed tolerable.
  This rosy picture ended with Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 and the subsequent German defeats at Moscow and Stalingrad. Germany was now fighting a mighty enemy in the East, and in order to defeat it, occupied territory had to make its contribution. Economic extraction increased, production was limited mostly to sectors relevant for the war effort as it was simply impossible to produce guns and butter. Repression increased, especially against the Jewish population.
  After the Allied invasion of June 1944, due to the railroad strike and the frontline running through the Netherlands, the Randstad was cut off from food and fuel. This resulted in acute need and starvation: the Hongerwinter. The German authorities lost more and more control over the situation as the population tried to keep what little they had away from German confiscations and were less inclined to cooperate now that it was clear that Germany would lose the war. Fanatical Nazis prepared to make a last stand against the Allied troops, followed Berlin's Nerobefehl and destroyed goods and property (battle for Groningen, destructions of the Amsterdam and Rotterdam ports, inundations). Others tried to mediate the situation. Eventually, in April and May 1945, the Netherlands was liberated by the Canadian troops.
caption: Amsterdam in April 1944
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