The Parallels of Perdition

Hitler's Perdition Balkenende's Parallelism by Jack Wilson, anti- © Professor Ian Matley, Nazi league Michigan State University During the 1930s Hitler and his Nazi The reactionary right wing party of party rose to power. Balkenende has hardly ever been out of power since the war.

When the Reichstag building burned When small groups of mindless young Dutch in a fire started by the Nazis Muslims gathered together and planned themselves, Hitler blamed the protests, Balkenende used this as an excuse Communists and he introduced the to propose to his cabinet a new Dutch Enabling Act, which provided a constitution, which like that of the German constitutional basis for his dictatorship. Third Reich, reduces ministerial accountability in parliament and gives presidential executive powers to Balkenende and his ministers; and also proposes a blood link to the concept of citizenship.

The Lander, or states, lost their Balkenende seeks to reduce the power of powers, and the Nazi party was the the provincial authorities and city mayors. only political party allowed. Dutch political parties merge into an amorphous mass where the electorate cannot tell the difference between the various political brands.

In a blood purge of 1934 many party Balkenende does not immediately respond leaders were executed for an alleged to plots against him. It is not until later, in plot against Hitler. When Hindenburg the political blood bath of 2006, that died, Hitler abolished the office of Balkenende purges his erstwhile VVD allies president and took the title Fuhrer, or for plotting against him. Then to secure his "leader." position he would spend months, shamelessly disregarding the needs of the country, whilst he horse traded with his former political enemies. In the corridors of the Binnenhof, Balkenende is know to his staff as 'the boy Fuhrer'.

The totalitarian police state increased Balkenende appoints Piet Hein Donner as in power. Heinrich Himmler was chief Justice Minister and head of the secret police. of the Gestapo, or secret police. Donner is mired in scandal, corruption and lies; and thus proves the ideal candidate to later become Social Affairs minister; to set an example to the volk . Exhumed later from the political spares bin will be to set another example to the volk of the vaderland that mere corruption and the control of a drugs running police force is no bar to high office in the Netherlands.

Joseph Goebbels directed the Balkenende's government produces a string propaganda ministry. Cultural of propaganda to evoke fear in the institutions, including the press, population. Surveys of the Dutch population theater, and arts, were regimented. shows growing apprehension. Surveys of Schools and the Hitler Youth Dutch children shows growing fear. Donner's indoctrinated young people. secret police tap the telephones and open the mail of journalists. The Propaganda Departments of various Dutch Ministries flood editors and sub-editors with propaganda. The Dutch Ministry of Justice Propaganda spends millions on television and press advertising in support of the police state and the Nederlands Reich, and to ensure that publishers are rewarded for towing the party line.

The Nazis persecuted both Roman In Eindhoven the Dutch police habitually tell Catholic and Protestant churches, and suspects in custody that their "Jew-boy the infamous Nuremberg of 1935 lawyers" are useless and are only deprived Jews of citizenship. working for the money. In Den Bosch, the President of an Appeal Court, Huurman- Astens, accuses a defendant of admitting to being a Protestant.

Hitler talked peace but prepared for Balkenende engineers the failure of the war. In 1933 Germany withdrew from referendum on the European Union the League of Nations. Constitution. For the first time since the war the Dutch population are conditioned against European justice and unity. Germany repudiated the Treaty of Balkenende orders 300 cruise missiles Versailles in 1935 and began rearming. whose range will only hit targets in Germany, Military service is compulsory. Belgium, France and Britain. The Dutch military start sustained television advertising to glorify violence and encourage psychopaths to become army recruits.

Hitler denounced the Locarno Pact in The Balkenende regime continues to ensure 1936 and marched into the Rhineland. that the Dutch population reject the Germany formed a Berlin-Rome Axis possibility of a European Constitution. The with Italy. During the Spanish Civil Balkenende gauleiters know that European War, Germany aided Francisco Franco unity was developed primarily as a bulwark and tested its new weapons. By 1938 against the resurrection of Nazism and as a Hitler had a powerful mechanized army champion of European Human Rights; both and air force. ideas are anathema to the Dutch regime. As the Germans trained their air force in Spain, the Dutch send their troops off for training in the Middle East to prepare them for future armed repression of Dutch minorities.

The infamous Kristallnacht in 1938, Balkenende hit on a plan to attack 26,000 during which many Jews and their brown and black Dutch residents, expel them property were brutally attacked, from their homes in the Netherlands, and ushered in a new and more violent force them to sell their property at knock- phase of their persecution, and the down prices. Fascist Dutch mayors introduce Jewish property that was not destroyed residency laws against non-Dutch people. was confiscated.

One of the main items on Hitler's One of the main items on Balkenende's agenda was ridding Europe of all Jews. agenda was to rid the Netherlands of brown As soon as he gained office in 1933, skinned and black skinned people. As soon as the persecution of Jews began on a he gained office briefing papers were sporadic basis. circulating amongst the Dutch cabinet with plans for the 'final solution' of the brown and black skins.

Many who worked in the government Professors at Dutch universities were or universities lost their jobs. warned about making trouble regarding the failure of the Netherlands to fully protect the European Human Rights laws. Lawyers are threatened and harassed by the Dutch police. On Sept. 15, 1935, passage of the The Dutch pass laws depriving brown and Nuremberg Laws deprived German black skinned Dutch residents of their status Jews of their citizenship. and starts to tear apart families. Fathers, mothers and children are terrorized and frightened at the prospect of being separated.

Many emigrated, but most remained Many native Dutch emigrate to Australia, because they did not realize the depths New Zealand and Canada because they fear of Hitler's hatred. the Nazism into which their country is descending.

The pretext for expanded persecution The fascist Dutch politician Pym Fortuijn is came to Hitler when a German killed and Balkenende immediately diplomat, Ernst von Rath, was telephones the Justice Minister and an insider assassinated in Paris by a Polish Jew source alleges that he asks whether it was named Herschel Grynszpan on Nov. 7, done by a 'nigger'. It was not, and the 1938 Balkenende regime cannot make political capital. The Dutch fringe cinema director Theo Van Gogh is killed and, joy of joy for Balkenende, Donner and Verdonk, it was done by a Muslim.

News of the killing reached Hitler in News of the Van Gogh killing reaches Munich. Balkenende, and an insider source alleges that, whilst he is, as usual, tired and emotional he blurts out "we have the fuckers now!".

His propaganda minister, Joseph Balkenende's ministers Donner and Goebbels, after conferring with Hitler, Verdonk, after clearing it with Balkenende, urged the Nazi Storm Troopers to order the Dutch police and the secret police begin "spontaneous" reprisals against to crack down on Muslims and anybody with Jews throughout Germany. a brown or black skin. Donner orders the Dutch judges and prosecutors to show no mercy. Show trials are arranged.

On the 'Kristallnacht' night of On the day after Van Gogh died the Dutch November 9-10 more than 7,000 police and secret police tapped the Jewish businesses were destroyed, telephones of 834 Dutch citizens and nearly one hundred Jews were killed residents. 1,211 letters were opened and and hundreds injured, and more than their contents photocopied. 214 computer 175 synagogues were demolished. connections were monitored and copied. 128 informants were paid to invent stories on their friends, neighbours and complete strangers. 18 Dutch judges received telephone calls from Ministry of Justice officials telling them how to handle cases.

Further actions were taken in In subsequent weeks the Dutch police and subsequent weeks by the Nazis. secret police tapped the telephones of 26,660 Dutch citizens and residents. 24,850 letters were opened and their contents photocopied. 5,400 computer connections were monitored and copied. 1,695 informants were paid to invent stories on their friends, neighbours and complete strangers. 112 Dutch judges received telephone calls from Ministry of Justice officials telling them how to handle cases.

The Dutch have learned nothing from history, and history is now repeating itself in the Netherlands.

Anne (Annelise) Marie Frank was born on Layla was born in 1995 to Martin June 12, 1929 to Otto and Edith Frank, both and Daphne, both of whom were of whom were Jewish. Anne and her older brown skinned and were from the sister Margot grew up in a Germany that was Caribbean. Anna and her younger becoming increasingly hostile to Jews and brother Pieter grew up in a northern other minorities, and the hostility worsened suburb of Amsterdam. When Layla when the anti-Jewish National Socialist party was younger she did not register the of Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. fact that she and her family were Realizing that the situation for Jews in looked down upon by the native Germany was becoming perilous, Otto Frank Dutch neighbours. She did not know went to The Netherlands to set up a branch of that her father had to work from his brother's company in Amsterdam. His early in the morning into the late family joined him soon after, and by the mid- evening and was exhausted when he 1930s, the Franks had settled into a relatively arrived home. She did not know that contented existence free of overt state her mother had a night job which she persecution for their Jewish heritage. went to after Layla went to bed in the In 1939, the uneasy peace in Europe was evening. Layla did not know that her shattered when German Nazis began invading parents provided cheap labour to other European countries. World War II had sustain the Amsterdam economy and commenced. In May 1940, The Netherlands keep the money flowing into the immediately surrendered to Germany and was coffers of Dutch businesses. Layla quickly brought under the rule of German and her family were the invisible occupation. ones who worked hard to survive, The Dutch did not protect its Jewish who paid their taxes, and who population from Nazi persecution, and the benefited the economy; and who occupying Nazi administration and their Dutch were never accepted by the Dutch. henchmen issued increasingly severe anti- By 2001 the Dutch Nazis politicians Jewish decrees to isolate the Jews from the were smelling the blood of the rest of the Dutch population. All Jews had to innocents that would further their register their businesses and later surrender political careers. Fascists like Pym them to non-Jews. Otto Frank turned his Fortuijn were spreading their poison business over to his non-Jewish colleagues, and their Nazi ideologies. The Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman. In 1941, established parties, the CDA and Anne and Margot were no longer allowed to VVD, hurried to join the feeding attend school with non-Jews. By 1942, all frenzy. 6 year old Layla felt the Jews aged 6 and older were required to wear tension in the small family apartment a yellow Star of David on their clothes to as the apprehension in her parents mark them as Jews. Soon, Dutch Jews were grew and they because stressed and being rounded up and deported to Westerbork edgy. Martin and Daphne started to prison camp in the northern Netherlands. The cut down on essential household native Dutch population started to denounce expenditure and tried to put a little their Jewish neighbours to gain favour with away for a rainy day; they did not the Nazi administration; the vast majority of know what the future held for them which were also Dutch. and their children. On television the Meanwhile, Otto Frank was preparing the administration's Reichministers, upper floors of the back annex attached to his Balkenende, Verdonk, Donner, and office as a secret place where his family could all the others, spat out their venom hide from Nazi officials and sympathizers and and their threats to deport 26,000 escape deportation to the concentration Netherlands residents. As in the camps. He had solicited the help of Kugler 1940s the native Dutch population and Kleiman as well as office workers Miep warmed to the fascism of their Gies, Jan Gies, and Bep Voskuijl to sustain leaders and looked for opportunities them in hiding during the Nazi occupation. to persecute their poorer and weaker When Margot received a deportation notice on neighbours. Now, employers profited July 5, 1942, the family immediately went by paying less and demanding more into hiding. The Franks were joined a week of their non-Dutch employees. Martin later by Otto's Jewish business partner and Daphne knew of families in their Hermann van Pels, his wife Auguste, and their area which had been rounded up in son Peter, and in November, by Fritz Pfeffer. dawn police raids and sent to the Through the social turmoil of the Nazi internment camps where those to be occupation, Anne tried to go on with her life deported were being kept. as usual, but she keenly felt the Martin and Daphne had a few friend discrimination and isolation imposed upon in their neighbourhood, but there herself and the other Jews. When Anne's was fear spreading amongst those parents gave the lonely girl a diary for her who felt exposed to the increasingly 13th birthday, she was thrilled and began vicious Nazi administration in the writing in it right away. The diary, which she local town hall and in . named Kitty, was to become one of the most Families drew inwards and kept to poignant memoirs of Jewish life during World their small cramped apartments; War II in occupied Europe. feeling vulnerable when out in public. For over two years, the hideaways in the Many ethnic families were making annex shared a confined space and lived plans to go into hiding. Other ethnic under constant dread of detection by the families were exhausted with the Nazis. A hinged bookcase was all that struggle of life in the Netherlands separated the occupants of the annex from and were frantically saving to be able the outside world, and it was through this to afford to move to freedom in door that Miep and Bep passed along scant another country. food and news to the eight people. Despite Through the social turmoil of the the discomforts, they tried to lead as normal a Balkenende years, Layla and her life as possible. For Anne, Margot, and Peter, family felt more and more isolated. this meant studying and doing homework. Throughout the Netherlands During the years in hiding, Anne developed thousand of families, thousands of from a girl into an adolescent who harbored innocent children, lived in fear and uncommon depth and complexity, and her uncertainty. In the poor suburbs of diary became her best friend and confidante. Amsterdam the minority community She described the ups and downs of daily life came under pressure from the police in hiding and was candid about the others and and from the local administration. unusually honest about the changes in Brown and black skinned people were herself. She wrote some of her diary notations targeted; as were those with into little stories, and rewrote a large portion distinctive ethnic looks or wearing of her diary from March to August 1944 after distinctive clothing. learning from a Dutch Free Radio broadcast Daphne had always kept a diary that her diary could be of historical interest to which she wrote on the bus each others. The diary entries portrayed the night on the way home from work. In adolescent Anne as a smart, free-spirited girl former years the diary had contained with a keen interest in boys and in cinema, happy events from her children's who remained optimistic and dared to dream lives and jolly comments and glamorous dreams despite her harrowing observations about marriage; now a confinement. shadow fell across her diary entries. As 1944 progressed, the annex occupants Both Martin and Daphne noticed became more and more hopeful that the that work colleagues started to defeat of the Axis powers was at hand, and disappear and they knew that they dreamed of returning to a normal life. But on had either gone into hiding or they Aug. 4, 1944, a Dutch Nazi policeman and had fled the Netherlands. Some had several Dutch collaborators raided the annex stopped working because they feared after receiving a tip from a Dutch informant. being denounced by their Dutch The residents of the secret annex were employers or their Dutch co-workers arrested and sent to Westerbork; a month and they had to rely on the hand- later, they were on the last transport ever to outs and charity of their friends. leave Westerbork for Auschwitz concentration Layla and Pieter were showing more camp in Poland. and more signs of stress and they Mrs. Frank died of starvation at Auschwitz. became increasingly introverted. At In October, Anne and Margot were Layla's school the Dutch children transported from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen were beginning to pick up the concentration camp in northwest Germany. prejudices of their parents, and the There, the sisters soon contracted typhus, bullying of the ethnic children and the two died within weeks of each other escalated. in March 1945, a month before the camp was The increasing Nazification of Dutch liberated by Allied troops. Otto Frank was the politics was widely reported in the only resident of the annex to survive the world media, and both the BBC and Holocaust. CNN interviewed Dutch ministers like Verdonk; and local politicians like the Mayor of Rotterdam. For a while it appeared that international opinion against Dutch fascism may change things. In the European Parliament and in various national parliaments questions were being asked about the Dutch government policy of forced deportation of the ethic minorities. Yet, as in the 1930s and 1940s, the rhetoric fell far short of what was required to protect the decency and humanity of Europe. As with Layla and Pieter, many young children witnessed the distress of their parents and their parent's desperate efforts to survive the onslaught of the fascist administrators and police who plagued their lives and menaced them with internment and deportation. Yet there was no American and British armies on the Dutch borders intent on liberating the oppressed; and for many in the Netherlands the heavy fist of Dutch Nazism still strikes them daily. Once again Europe is shamelessly standing by as families and children are being destroyed by the Nazis; this time not by Nazis in Berlin, but by Nazis in The Hague. Netherlands News will be publishing extracts from Daphne's diary in forthcoming issues.