At the end of April 1943 everywhere in the Netherlands spontaneously and completely unexpected protest strikes broke out. The reason for those strikes was a recall of the German occupier: that the former Dutch soldiers had to go to prison camps in Germany. Here they to work in the Arbeiteizats (labour commitment). The April-May strikes lasted locally up to 5-6 May 1943. They were oppressed with aggressive violence. First in Hengelo, where the strikes had started.
The April-May strikes are considered as a turning point in the occupation. The Germans now knew that the Dutch couldn't be won for their cause in any possible way. From now on the Nazi's put all further afford in the warfare. Resistance increased and the "going into hiding" started.
This turning point in the occupation of the Netherlands followed on a turning point in the second world war as a whole: the German defeat at Stalingrad, to the Wolga. That defeat didn't remained a secret for long. Immediately afterwards, on 3 February 1943, the Nazi' s declared a period of three days public mourning in Germany and the occupied areas.
Suddenly on 29 April 1943 a recall of the commander in chief of the German occupancy troops in the Netherlands, general Christiansen appeared in the newspapers, directed at the almost 300,000 members of the former Dutch army. They all must go in to captivity in Germany. The occupiers saw two advantages in that measure: a) to provide workers for Germany and b) strip the Netherlands of able-bodied men who could reinforce the resistance.
The recall of Christiansen came in as a bomb. In Twente, first in Hengelo, at the machine factory of Stork, immediately protest strikes and demonstrations started. The example in Twente was imitated almost everywhere in the Netherlands. On a number of places milk stock breeders stops the supply of milk to the dairy factory, and distributed the milk for free (because of that milk aspect the April-May strikes are also called the milk strike).
The supreme police force chief in the Netherlands, SS'r Rauter, declared the politiestandrecht (sorry no english word for this). This politiestandrecht had little to do with justice. It was a terror measure, where 'suspects' immediately, without any form of process, were shot. From Groningen to Limburg strikers were arrested. There were almost two hundred deads, at arbitrary executions and shootings on the street.
In those days in Amsterdam one man, Hendrikus Hendrik was sentenced to death because of the distribution of strike recalls, but there was hardly any strike in Amsterdam. The people of Amsterdam still remembered the bloody oppression of the February strike in 1941 all to well. After the April-May strikes the rest of the country also knew what Nazi-terror implied.
Little was archived of the plan of the occupiers to imprison the Dutch soldiers; it had especially a wrong impact. Only 8,000 Dutch ex-soldiers were employed in Germany, much less than the intention was. Many soldiers obtained exemption of the labour commitment, on the basis of declarations of ' indispensable at work that is important for the warfare' (' kriegswichtig' ). Much of the ex-soldiers went into hiding.
According to the Nazi's the strikers were 'instigated' at the end of April-begin of May 1943 by the transmissions of radio Orange in London. On 13 May 1943 the Dutch were told that they had to hand in their radio's. ' After the war ' one could come back to pick up their radio. Those who kept their radio's risked a heavy sentence: the concentration camp. Still a quarter of all radio's were kept back by the citizens; a trick used was handing in a second, old radio. The radio owners continued to follow the transmissions of radio Orange (the Dutch broadcasting in London) and BBC as far as the noise of yammers that at least allowed.
The brought into line ' Hilversum' remained transmitting, although the listeners already considerably decreased in numbers.
Officially after May 1943 there were two groups of listeners: radio owners with a special license, and people with a subscription on ' radiodistributie' (cable radio). The number of illegal news-bulletins increased as from 1943 enormously, but the large hunger for news couldn't be satisfied with that.
Thanks for reading.
The April-May strikes are considered as a turning point in the occupation. The Germans now knew that the Dutch couldn't be won for their cause in any possible way. From now on the Nazi's put all further afford in the warfare. Resistance increased and the "going into hiding" started.
This turning point in the occupation of the Netherlands followed on a turning point in the second world war as a whole: the German defeat at Stalingrad, to the Wolga. That defeat didn't remained a secret for long. Immediately afterwards, on 3 February 1943, the Nazi' s declared a period of three days public mourning in Germany and the occupied areas.
Suddenly on 29 April 1943 a recall of the commander in chief of the German occupancy troops in the Netherlands, general Christiansen appeared in the newspapers, directed at the almost 300,000 members of the former Dutch army. They all must go in to captivity in Germany. The occupiers saw two advantages in that measure: a) to provide workers for Germany and b) strip the Netherlands of able-bodied men who could reinforce the resistance.
The recall of Christiansen came in as a bomb. In Twente, first in Hengelo, at the machine factory of Stork, immediately protest strikes and demonstrations started. The example in Twente was imitated almost everywhere in the Netherlands. On a number of places milk stock breeders stops the supply of milk to the dairy factory, and distributed the milk for free (because of that milk aspect the April-May strikes are also called the milk strike).
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In those days in Amsterdam one man, Hendrikus Hendrik was sentenced to death because of the distribution of strike recalls, but there was hardly any strike in Amsterdam. The people of Amsterdam still remembered the bloody oppression of the February strike in 1941 all to well. After the April-May strikes the rest of the country also knew what Nazi-terror implied.
Little was archived of the plan of the occupiers to imprison the Dutch soldiers; it had especially a wrong impact. Only 8,000 Dutch ex-soldiers were employed in Germany, much less than the intention was. Many soldiers obtained exemption of the labour commitment, on the basis of declarations of ' indispensable at work that is important for the warfare' (' kriegswichtig' ). Much of the ex-soldiers went into hiding.
According to the Nazi's the strikers were 'instigated' at the end of April-begin of May 1943 by the transmissions of radio Orange in London. On 13 May 1943 the Dutch were told that they had to hand in their radio's. ' After the war ' one could come back to pick up their radio. Those who kept their radio's risked a heavy sentence: the concentration camp. Still a quarter of all radio's were kept back by the citizens; a trick used was handing in a second, old radio. The radio owners continued to follow the transmissions of radio Orange (the Dutch broadcasting in London) and BBC as far as the noise of yammers that at least allowed.
The brought into line ' Hilversum' remained transmitting, although the listeners already considerably decreased in numbers.
Officially after May 1943 there were two groups of listeners: radio owners with a special license, and people with a subscription on ' radiodistributie' (cable radio). The number of illegal news-bulletins increased as from 1943 enormously, but the large hunger for news couldn't be satisfied with that.
Thanks for reading.
Correct me if I am wrong, but the "Milk Strike" lead to teh first executions in Holland of resistance fighters / strikers. As you said, it really turned the view for the Nazis - many of whom thought the Dutch would be happier with Nazi rule than the monarchy / government. The resistance pointed to the shootings as evidence of what the Nazis really thought of the Dutch.
ReplyDeleteI hope I am rememebring my facts correctly - based on my visit to the Resistance Museum a week ago!
Executions of resistance fighters already started at the beginning of the occupation. Also the aggressive appearance towards Dutch people started early. See my post about the February 1941. Difference is that in the beginning most of these happened in the west of the country in the big city's. Most of people in the country hardly knew what was going on. Remember that the Germans controlled the media. Another reason that the Nazi's couldn't win the Dutch people for their couse was their loayal to the Royals. That was the reason that Hitler wanted to take the royal family prison when they invaded. When this failed they started a propaganda telling the people what a cowards they were by abandon them. Most people never believe them. Then when they realized that they never could win the Dutch people for their cause the only thing left was acting aggressive and violent.
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