The Netherlands during World War II

In 1940, the Netherlands was invaded by Germany. Neutral in World War One, the unprepared Dutch army was no match for the Blitzkrieg, and the country had no air force to speak of. After five days of fighting, the army laid down their arms when the Luftwaffe bombed and destroyed Rotterdam. To avoid surrender and cooperation, Queen Wilhelmina and her ministers fled to England to form a government in exile. Their broadcasts over the BBC, called Radio Free Orange, were listened to regularly on clandestine radios throughout the war. During this time the Crown Princess, Juliana, lived in Ottawa.

German rule under the Austrian Seyss-Inquart began fairly benignly, but the Nazis were hated by all the citizens, except for members of the NSB, the Dutch National Socialist Party, who were a small despised minority. As the occupation grew harsher, the Dutch lost all political rights and suffered press censorship, shortages, confiscations, forced export of food, mass arrests, mistreatment of prisoners, and executions.

In 1941, the arrest of 425 young Amsterdam Jews evoked two days of strikes throughout the country. Oppression of Dutch Jews continued, and eventually, most were sent east to death camps. Of the original 107,000 Dutch Jews, some three quarters were arrested directly and taken to concentration camps. The others were hidden by their non-Jewish compatriots, but about a third of those hidden, like Anne Frank and her family, were eventually discovered and also taken to the camps.

From 1942 to the end of the war, hundreds of thousands of Dutch men were conscripted to labour in German factories. Many, including the majority of university students, went into hiding to avoid this slavery. In 1943, to satisfy an increasing labour shortage in Germany, all Dutch army personnel were ordered reinterned for deportation. Again, the country’s simmering resentment ignited, and another, more widespread general strike broke out. As before, the Nazi retaliation was bloody, and the strikes died down in about a week. This strike lasted longest in the countryside, where striking farmers who interfered with food delivery were harder to identify than striking city workers. Among those executed was my mother's 28 year old brother, Rienold Terpstra.

The Dutch Resistance transported and hid Jews, published underground newspapers, and forged or stole ID cards and ration books to help support 300,000 people in hiding. They also committed sabotage, and later assassinated a number of German officials or collaborators. The reprisals for such attacks became increasingly disproportionate, as the Nazis executed Resistance members, prisoners, and innocent citizens alike, burned homes, and deported townsfolk to concentration camps.

As the war went on, food shortages became more severe and health suffered. In 1944, the arrival of the Allied armies in the southern Netherlands was supported by a railway strike. Seyss-Inquart responded with a six week blockade of food transport, contributing to the death by starvation of 15,000 people during the “Hunger Winter”. Seyss-Inquart was ultimately executed for war crimes.

In 1945, the Canadian Army liberated the Netherlands and earned the gratitude of the Dutch people forever. During the next ten years, many thousands of Dutch people chose Canada to be their new homeland.

The Gladstone production of All Changed will open, appropriately, on V-E Day.