Netherlands in World War II

thumb|The city of [[Rotterdam after the German bombing during the Battle of the Netherlands in May 1940]]

World War II in the Netherlands can be broken down into four periods:

September 1939 to May 1940: After the war broke out, the Netherlands declared neutrality. The country was later invaded and occupied by Germany.
May 1940 to June 1941: An economic boom caused by orders from Germany, combined with the "velvet glove" approach from Arthur Seyss-Inquart, resulted in a comparatively mild occupation.
June 1941 to June 1944: As the war intensified, Germany demanded higher contributions from occupied territories, resulting in a decline of living standards in the Netherlands. Repression against the Jewish population intensified and thousands were deported to extermination camps. The "velvet glove" approach ended. Meanwhile the Netherlands's East Indies possession in Asia was invaded and occupied by Japan.
June 1944 to May 1945: Conditions in the Netherlands deteriorated further, leading to starvation and lack of fuel. The German occupation authorities gradually lost control over the situation. Nazis wanted to make a last stand and commit acts of destruction, others tried to mitigate the situation, until the country was finally liberated by the Allies. In the East Indies meanwhile, Japanese occupation continued until the Surrender of Japan on the 15th of August 1945.

Despite Dutch neutrality, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 as part of Fall Gelb (Case Yellow). On 15 May 1940, one day after the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces surrendered. The Dutch government and the royal family fled to London. Princess Juliana and her children sought refuge in Ottawa, Canada, until after the war.

German occupation lasted in some areas until the German surrender in May 1945. The occupiers deported most of the Jewish Netherlanders to Nazi concentration camps. Due to the variation in the survival rate of Jewish inhabitants among the regions in the Netherlands, scholars have questioned the validity of a single explanation at the national level. In part due to the well-organised population registers, about 70 per cent of the country's Jewish population were killed in the war—the highest rate in Western Europe, a much higher percentage than in Belgium or France, although lower than some Eastern countries like Lithuania. Declassified records revealed that the Germans paid a bounty to Dutch police and administration officials to find Jews. Hundreds of thousands of Dutch citizens were believed to be collaborators with the Germans. In early 1941, Communists in and around the city of Amsterdam organised the February strike—a general strike to protest the persecution of Jewish citizens. Active resistance, at first carried out by a minority, grew in the course of the occupation. In 1942, the East Indies colony was invaded and taken by Japan.

The Allies liberated most of the south of the Netherlands in the second half of 1944 but were unable to cross the great rivers. The rest of the country, especially the west and north, remained under German occupation and suffered from a famine at the end of 1944, known as the "Hunger Winter". On 5 May 1945, the German surrender at Lüneburg Heath led to the final liberation of the whole country, the Netherlands being one of the last nations of Europe to be liberated from Germany. This is now commemorated every year as Bevrijdingsdag (Liberation Day). The end of the war is commemorated as National Remembrance 15 August.

Background

thumb|right|A bunker of the [[Peel-Raam Line, built in 1939]]

Its possession of colonies such as the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia) allowed the Netherlands to be one of the top five oil producers in the world and to have the world's largest aircraft factory in the Interbellum (Fokker), which aided the neutrality of the Netherlands and the success of its arms dealings in the First World War. The country was one of the richest in Europe and could easily have afforded a large and modern military. Dutch governments between 1929 and 1943 were dominated by Christian and centre-right political parties. From 1933, the Great Depression in the Netherlands, which had begun in 1929 occurred. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the NSB was already declining in both members and voters.

During the interwar period, the government undertook a significant increase in civil infrastructure projects and land reclamation, including the Zuiderzee Works. That resulted in the final draining of seawater from the Wieringermeer polder and the completion of the Afsluitdijk.

During World War I, the Dutch government, under Pieter Cort van der Linden, had managed to preserve Dutch neutrality throughout the conflict. In the Interwar Period, the Netherlands had continued to pursue its "Independence Policy" even after the rise to power of the Nazi Party in Germany in 1933. The Anti-Revolutionary Party's conservative prime minister, Hendrikus Colijn, who held power from 1933 until 1939, believed that the Netherlands could never withstand an attack by a major power. Pragmatically, the government did not spend much on the military. Although military spending was doubled between 1938 and 1939, amid rising international tensions, it constituted only 4% of national spending in 1939, in contrast to nearly 25% of Nazi Germany.

German invasion

thumb|[[De Telegraaf issue from 10 May 1940 reporting on the invasion. The lead headline reads "Bitter resistance on the Ijsel and Maas [rivers]; Four German armored trains out of action." At center is a public announcement of resistance from Queen Wilhelmina.]]

On the morning of 10 May 1940, the German Army simultaneously invaded The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg without a formal declaration of war. The attackers meant to draw Allied forces away from the Ardennes, to lure British and French forces deeper into Belgium, and to pre-empt a possible British invasion in North Holland. The Luftwaffe also sought to take over Dutch airfields on the North Sea to launch air raids against Great Britain.

upright|thumb|Dutch soldiers guard the Holland Water Line shortly after mobilisation, 1939

The armed forces of the Netherlands, with insufficient and outdated weapons and equipment, were caught largely unprepared. In particular, the Royal Netherlands Army did not have comparable armoured forces and could mount only a limited number of armoured cars and tankettes. The air force had only 140 aircraft, mostly outdated biplanes, 65 of which were destroyed on the first day of the campaign. This allowed the royal family and top government officials to escape to London, taking the national bullion and diamond stocks, and form a Dutch government-in-exile. The Dutch also succeeded in destroying significant numbers of transport aircraft that the Germans would need for their planned invasion of Britain.

However, the German forces succeeded in crossing the Maas river in the Netherlands on the first day, which allowed the Wehrmacht to outflank the nearby Belgian Fort Ében-Émael and force the Belgian army to withdraw from the German border.

The Germans quickly were in control of most of the east of the country. The German forces in the south advanced rapidly and, by the fourth day, 9th Panzerdivision had penetrated the Fortress Holland over the Moerdijk bridges.

The Dutch realised that neither British nor French troops could reach the Netherlands in sufficient numbers to halt the invasion, particularly with the speed of the German advance into Belgium. The ultimatum was returned on a technicality since it had not been signed by the German commander. Winkelman held a meeting with other Dutch generals. They decided that further resistance was futile and wanted to protect civilian residents. In the afternoon of 14 May, Winkelman issued a proclamation to his army to order them to surrender:

On 15 May, the Netherlands officially signed the surrender with Germany. Dutch forces in the province of Zeeland, which had come under French control, continued fighting alongside French forces until 17 May, when the bombardment of the town of Middelburg forced them, too, to surrender. The Dutch Empire, in particular the Dutch East Indies, supported the Allies; the colonies were unaffected by the surrender. Many ships of the Royal Dutch Navy in Dutch waters fled to the United Kingdom.

During the four-day campaign, about 2,300 Dutch soldiers were killed and 7000 wounded, and more than 3000 Dutch civilians also died. The Germans lost 2,200 men killed and 7000 wounded. In addition, 1,300 German soldiers captured by the Dutch during the campaign, many around The Hague, had been shipped to Britain and remained POWs for the rest of the war.

Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch government succeeded in escaping from the Netherlands before the surrender and formed a government-in-exile. Princess Juliana and her children went to Canada for safety.

German occupation

Occupation government

After a brief period of martial law, Germany invited the Dutch government to return from London and continue to govern under German control, as France and Denmark had done. When government leaders refused, Germany established the Reichskommissariat Niederlande ("Dutch Imperial Commission") as the occupation regime, assuming power on 29 May 1940, with its headquarters in The Hague. Austrian Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart was installed as Reichskommissar, with his office in a mansion on Museumplein in Amsterdam, today the home of the American consulate. Fellow Austrian Hanns Albin Rauter was assigned as SS and police leader, reporting to Seyss-Inquart and to SS chief Heinrich Himmler.

A long-term aim of the Nazis was to incorporate the Netherlands into the Greater Germanic Reich. Adolf Hitler thought highly of the Dutch people, considering them fellow members of the Aryan "master race".

In his first public address on 29 May, Seyss-Inquart promised friendly governance: