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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 October 2017
Generic fascism scholarship, which has turned strongly towards cultural political history in recent years, has focused heavily on themes of rebirth in fascist culture, but rebirth's counterpart of decline remains under-researched. After emphasizing the existence of several distinct and even mutually exclusive ideological strands in the NSB, this article shows how ideological difference was marked by narratives of decline. But they were equally used to generate a coherent political message about the contemporary state of the Netherlands. Central to their functionality as a unifying tool was party newspaper Volk en Vaderland, which served to promote a patriotic, news-focused, and peculiarly Dutch narrative of decline that overarched ideological difference. Yet more than just tying ends together, one narrative in particular served as a crucial ideological constant in the Movement, namely the Leider Anton Mussert's narrative of decline since the early modern Golden Age of the Dutch Republic, which tied traditional liberal patriotic themes into fascist discourse. Where other historians have emphasized Mussert's lack of moral and ideological leadership, the article impresses how narratives of decline functioned as moral support, and rallied NSB loyalists throughout the German occupation of the Netherlands, until Mussert's own death.
Thanks to John Pollard, Pedro Ramos Pinto, and Henning Grunwald for reading through early versions of this article, and providing suggestions for improvement.
1 Volk en Vaderland (VoVa), 9:1, 2 Jan. 1942, p. 4. All translations are my own, unless otherwise stated.
2 Ibid.
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25 ‘Fascistische Studies, II.’, VoVa, 1:21, 27 May 1933, p. 2.
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35 Speech MS, Kemp, Lunteren, 18 Aug. 1938, pp. 1–2, NIOD, 123/1.1:87.
36 Ibid.
37 Jonge, Het nationaal-socialisme in Nederland, p. 4; van den Toorn, Maarten Cornelis, Wij melden U den nieuwen tijd: een beschouwing van het woordgebruik van de Nederlandse nationaal-socialisten (’s-Gravenhage, 1991), p. 4 Google Scholar.
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39 Instructions for colportage, Head of Colportage, Haarlem, 27 Aug. 1941, p. 1, NIOD, 123/2.01:531.
40 Report meeting of Leider with district leader and heads, Utrecht, 20 Mar. 1944, p. 14, NIOD, 123/1.2: 231.
41 Ibid., meeting minutes, 20 June 1944, Utrecht, pp. 29–30.
42 Circular, ‘Onderwerp voor de komende week’, 11 Jan. 1936, NIOD, 123/2.01:527.
43 Ibid., 7 Mar. 1936.
44 ‘Rede van Mussert op den Landdag’, VoVa, 1:2. 14 Jan. 1933, p. 1.
45 ‘De Lijdensweg der Boeren’, VoVa, 1:32, 12 Aug. 1933, p. 2.
46 The Great Depression in the Netherlands was delayed but particularly severe, with 100,000 unemployed by 1931, and over 400,000 by 1933, figures which remained more or less static until 1939. Jonge, Het nationaal-socialisme in Nederland, p. 40.
47 Ibid. See also VoVa, 2:20, pp. 1, 4, 2:44, p. 1, and 3:30, pp. 2–3.
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55 Rather naively, Mussert appealed to Mussolini to use his influence at the Vatican to put an end to the censure of the Dutch episcopacy. Letter, Mussert to Mussolini, 23 Apr. 1937, Utrecht, NIOD, 123/1.1:61.
56 ‘Barmat’, VoVa, 5:47, 19 Nov. 1937, p. 2.
57 Max Marchant et d'Ansembourg was a Catholic aristocrat, and mayor of the town of Amstenrade in the Catholic south, until he gave up his position to join the NSB. D'Ansembourg's lineage and position lent the NSB a great deal of prestige and respectability, but antagonized the episcopacy. See for instance the 1935 correspondence between d'Ansembourg and the bishop of Roermond in NSB Gewest iii: 2.19.049, dossier 10, The Hague National Archive.
58 ‘Barmat’, VoVa, 5:47, 19 Nov. 1937, p. 5.
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61 Brochure, programme for the 4th Landdag, 5 Oct. 1935, NIOD, 123/1.1:37.
62 Song booklet, De WA zingt, 13. ‘De Geuzenvendels Rukken Aan’. NIOD, 123/2.14:1127.
63 A. J. van Vessem, ‘Stadhouder Prins Willem II: zijn beteekenis voor onzen tijd’, VoVa, 3:20, 18 May 1935, p. 6.
64 Ibid., p. 7.
65 Het proces Mussert (Amsterdam, 1987), p. 214.
66 Ibid., p. 112.
67 Letter, Mussert to D., Scheveningen, 14 Dec. 1945, in Mussert, A., Nagelaten Bekentenissen: verantwoording en celbrieven van de NSB-leider, ed. Groeneveld, Gerard (Nijmegen, 2005), p. 206 Google Scholar.
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69 ‘Vlaanderen en Holland’, VoVa, 1:1, 7 Jan. 1933, p. 2.
70 Ibid.
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72 Mussert, preface to brochure by van Vlekke, June 1939, p. 5, NIOD, 123/1.1:98.
73 Although in a letter to Arthur Seyss-Inquart in 1941, Mussert still spoke of the struggle against the democratic forces allied with England and France. Letter, Mussert to Seyss-Inquart, Utrecht, 18 June 1941, NIOD, 123/1.1 113. The Netherlands has been in decline in relation to England ever since the Spanish War of Succession, VoVa complained. VoVa, 12:35, 28 Aug. 1942, p. 1.
74 Speech MS, Mussert, 1 May 1941, pp. 1–5, NIOD, 123/1.1:134.
75 Ibid., p. 5.
76 Ibid.; speech MS, Mussert, The Hague et al., 20 June–30 Aug. 1941, p. 2.
77 Speech MS, Mussert, ‘Ons Volksch Ontwaken’, 7 Apr. 1945, Pulchri Studio, The Hague, p. 7, NIOD, 123/1.1:256. The speech was also published in a propaganda booklet by Mussert, Nenasu. A., Grondslag der herrijzenis: ons volksch ontwaken (Utrecht, 1945)Google Scholar.
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81 Het proces Mussert, p. 217; Mussert also mentioned the episode in his vindicatory history of the NSB, see ch. ‘De NSB in Oorlogstijd’, in Mussert, Nagelaten Bekentenissen, p. 141.
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95 Anton Mussert, VoVa, 8:20, 24 May 1940, p. 1.
96 Ibid., p. 4.
97 Ibid., p. 5.
98 Ibid., p. 7.
99 VoVa, 8:21, 31 May 1940, p. 2.
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107 Proposal, State Secretariat: Bureau of Indian Affairs, ‘The German press and the Dutch Indies’, 15 Jan. 1944, NIOD, 123/2.13:913.
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119 Ibid., ii, pp. 1080–3.
120 Ibid., i, p. 1062.
121 ‘Het Oordeel der Geschiedenis’, VoVa, 10:18, 7 May 1943, p. 1.
122 Ibid.
123 Storm SS, 3:6, 14 May 1943, p. 1.
124 Veld, ed., De SS en Nederland, ii, p. 1016.
125 Rauter to Himmler, The Hague, 13 Jan. 1944, in Veld, ed., De SS en Nederland, ii, no. 498, p. 1278; Jong, Kok, and Somers, Naar eer en geweten, pp. 57–9.
126 Letter, [name restricted] to Mussert, 5 Jan. 1945, NIOD, 123/1.1:260.
127 Ibid., letter, Mussert to [name restricted], 15 Jan. 1945, Almelo.
128 Ibid., letter, Mussert to [name restricted], 17 Jan. 1945, Almelo.
129 ‘History has led our people to a new low. It will be our task to get it out of there’, VoVa, 12:43, 27 Oct. 1944, p. 2.
130 Speech MS, Mussert to district and circle leaders, 26 Feb. 1944, p. 1, NIOD, 123/1.1:231.
131 Speech, Mussert, ‘Ons Volksch Ontwaken’, 7 Apr. 1945, Pulchri Studio, The Hague, p. 1, NIOD, 123/1.1.256.
132 Ibid., p. 17.
133 Ibid., p. 22.
134 Introduction to António Costa Pinto and Aristotle Kallis, eds., Rethinking fascism and dictatorship in Europe (Basingstoke, 2014), pp. 3–5.
