National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands

The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (Dutch: Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland, NSB) was a Dutch fascist and later national socialist political party. As a parliamentary party participating in legislative elections, the NSB was rather successful during the 1930s. It remained the only legal party in the Netherlands during most of the Second World War.

Party history

1931-1940

The NSB was founded in Utrecht in 1931 during a period when several nationalist, fascist and national socialist parties were founded. The founders were Anton Mussert, who became the party's leader, and Cornelis van Geelkerken. The party based its program on Italian fascism and German National Socialism, however unlike the latter before 1936 the party was not anti-semitic and even had Jewish members.

In 1933, after a year of building an organization, the party organized its first public meeting, a Landdag in Utrecht which was attended by 600 party militants. Here the party presented itself. After that the party's support began to grow. In the same year the government forbade civil servants to be members of the NSB.

In the provincial elections of 1935 the party gained 8% of the votes and two seats in the Senate. This result was achieved against the background of the economic hardship of the Great Depression. Mussert's image as a reliable politician and his pragmatism which allowed him to unite the different types of fascism also contributed to the party's success, as did the party's strong organization and its political strategy, which was not oriented towards violent revolution but a democratic legal take over of the country. In 1936, under influence of Meinoud Rost van Tonningen the party became openly anti-semitic. Rost van Tonningen began to question Musserts leadership with support of the German NSDAP, raising internal divisions within the party. This led to decreased support for the party and a strong anti-fascist reaction of the political parties, trade unions and churches. In the 1937 general elections the party gained only 4% of the votes and 4 seats in the House of Representatives, however it expanded its seats in the Senate to five. In parliament the NSB MPs showed little respect for parliamentary procedures and rules. Many NSB MPs were called to order by the chairman of parliament for physical and verbal violence. In the provincial election of 1939 the party also gained 4% of the votes.

1940-1945

After the Second World War broke out the NSB sympathized with the Germans, and advocated strict neutrality for the Netherlands. In May 1940, 800 NSB members and sympathizers were put in custody by the Dutch government, after the German invasion. Soon after the Dutch defeat on 14 May 1940, they were set free by German troops. In June 1940, Mussert held a speech in Lunteren in which he called for the Netherlands to embrace the Germans and renounce the House of Orange, which had fled to London.

In 1940 the German occupation government had outlawed all socialist and communist parties; in 1941 it forbade all parties, except for the NSB. The NSB openly collaborated with the occupation forces. Its membership grew to about 100,000. The NSB played an important role in lower government and civil service; every new mayor appointed by the German occupation government was a member of the NSB. On the national level, Mussert had expected he would be made leader of an independent Dutch state allied to Germany; in reality, however, the Austrian National-Socialist Arthur Seyss-Inquart was in charge of an occupation government. Mussert had several meetings with Adolf Hitler in which he pleaded for an independent Netherlands, but he was unsuccessful. Although Seyss-Inquart had proposed that Mussert should be made prime minister of the Netherlands, he was only given the honorary title 'Leader of the Dutch People', and he was allowed to build a marginal State Secretariat, but he was given little or no actual power. His influence in the party waned at the expense of Rost van Tonningen and other more pro-German members. Beginning in the summer of 1943, many male members of the NSB were organized in the Landwacht, which helped the government control the population.

On September 4, 1944 the Allied forces conquered Antwerp and the NSB expected the fall of the Netherlands to come soon. On September 5, most of the NSB's leadership fled to Germany and the party's organization fell apart, on what is known as Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday).

After the German signing of surrender on May 6, 1945, the NSB was outlawed. Mussert was arrested the following day. Many of the members of the NSB were arrested, but a few were convicted, including Mussert, who was executed on May 7, 1946.

There were no attempts to continue the organization illegally.

Name

The party was called National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands. National Socialism is a reference to the German NSDAP.^{[original research?]} With the word Movement it sought to separate itself from conventional parties and the partisan strife that had characterized pillarization. Using the phrase "in the Netherlands" referred to the fact that the NSB was the Dutch wing of the international fascist movement.

People

  Adolf Hitler
  Heinrich Himmler
  Hermann Göring
  Joseph Goebbels

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