A REICHSKQMMISSARIAT German Civil Government in the Netherlands 1940-1945 by Johannes Postma B.A., Graceland College, 1962 Submitted to the Department of History and the Faculty of the Graduate School of t~e University of Kansas in partial fulfulJ.Jnent of the requirements for the de- gree of }faster of Arts. Redacted Signature -. Instructor in charge Redacted Signature May, 1964 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE . i CHAPTER I. IN THE GRASP OF THE THIRD REICH. • • • • 1 II. DEVELOPMENT, OBJECTIVES, AND STRUCTURE OF THE REICHSKOMMISSARIAT. • • • • • • • • • • • 18 III. PROMINENT PERSONNEL IN THE. REICHSKOMMISSARIA T. • • 3 9 IV. THE REICHSKOMMISSARIAT AND THE DUTCH ADMINISTRATION •••••••••••• . 70 V. THE REICHSKOMMISSARIAT AND THE REICH •••• . 91 VI .• CONCLUSIONS ••• . 111 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY. 117 B;tBLI OGRAPHY. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • .')124 CHARTS THE ORGANIZATION OF THE REICHSKOMMISSARIAT • • • • 38 THE REICHSKOMMISSARIAT IN RELATION TO THE REICH. • 110 PREFACE The Second World War, unleashed in 1939, caused great politi- cal upheavals and changes in the world, particularly in Europe. Many of the European nations were attacked and overrun by the powerful German armies. Some countries escaped a German invasion and consequent occupation by declaring and maintaining neutrality. These were Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. Other nations such as Italy, Finland, Hungary, Rumania, and Bul- garia chose to take sides with Germany, the last three responding under German pressure. With the exception of Finland, even these German allies experienced some form of German occupation. The following countries were all invaded and occupied by German troops: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, Estonia, Iatvia, Lithuania, and the Soviet Union. Only the Soviet Union escaped complete mil- itary defeat and occupation. England, with the exception of some of her Channel islands, was able to withstand a German invasion. The Germans devised various arrangements to govern the occu- pied territories and to rule their populations. The Dutch histor- ian, A. E. Cohen, has distinguished six different types of govern- ment applied to the areas just mentioned. The first of these was incorporation into Germany proper. This was applied to large areas of western and northern Poland, to the eastern Belgian provinces of Eupen and Malmede, the Saar, Austria, Danzig, and tne Lithuanian district of Memel, and large areas of Czechoslovakia which, accord- ii ing to German judgment were inhabited by Sudeten Germans. These areas were administered as part of Germany. The second type of government was de facto annexation. The areas to which this was applied were placed under a civil administrator who received his authority from the Ger'man Minister of Interior. Luxembourg, the eastern French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, the former Duchies of Lower Styria and Carniola, which belonged to Yugo- slavia before the war, were annexed in this fashion. The third form of government was annexation as Nebenland (adjoining land). This implied the status of a protectorate 0f Germany. This po- sition was assigned to the Polish General-Government. The fourth form of government was placement under a Vollma.chtigter (Repr~- sentative) of the German government. This was applied to Denmarki and at the end of the war·also to Hungary and northern Italy. The fifth type of occupation government was military admin- istration. This was instituted in Greece, Serbia, Belgium, and Northern France. The sixth and final form of occupation govern- ment was the Reichskommissariat, or German civil administration. This implied that a high ranking Nazi official -was appoint_ed by Adolf Hitler as Reichskommissar (High Commissioner) to administer the specified territory. The High Commissioner was authorized to select a group of men to function as his aides, and this group of officials constituted the office of the High Commissioner desig- nated as the Reichskonnnissariat. This form of government was in- iii stalled in the small Baltic countries, the Ukraine, Norway, and the Netherlands.l This thesis deals with the Reichskommissariat instituted by the Germans in the Netherlands in May of 1940. The objective of this study is to sketch in large outlines the development and organization of this Reichskommissariat, 'lo define its objectives and reasons for its existence, to arrive at some conclusions con- cerning its authority and influence both on the Dutch governmental administration and on the highest Nazi authorities in Germany, and to make some judgments about the success or failure of the Reichs- kornmissariat. Above all, however, this study aims at giving a description and an analysis of the relationships of the highest officials in the Reichskommissariat. Consequently, this study deals with the individual authority, ambitions, and activities of these German officials, as related to the Reichskommissariat. This is no chronological study or analysis of the nature of the German occupation in the broadest sense of the word. Space and time do not even permit the author to dwell on the details and the sub-departments of the Reichskornmissariat. Instead, after a general description of the organization of the Reichskommissar•iat, only the most important trends and events will be selected to adequately provide answers to the questions under consideration. 1. A. E. Cohen, "Opzet en structuur van het Duitse Reichs- kommissariat in Nederland, 11 Notities voor het geschiedwerk (Amster- dam: Rijksinstituut Voor oorlogsdocumentatie, mimiographed, n.d.), No. 16, pp. ·1-2. iv Most studies dealing with the German occupation of the Neth- erlands emphasize the suffering inflicted on the Dutch by the Ger- mans and the heroic resistance offiered by most loyal Dutchmen. Little attention is paid to the German leaders, unless their activ- ities were of immediate consequence to the circumstances just men- tioned. The average Dutchman hardly knew his rulers, except per- haps their names. Disagreements among the German rulers were sup- pressed by stringent censorship. When the war ended, the Dutch would rather remember their unjust suffering and their heroic struggle than their unwanted German masters. Most historical studies in this topic have a tendency to cater to this sentiment.2 This thesis is devided into six chapters. The first chapter is introductory. It provides the setting by narrating the events leading up to the installation of the Reichskornmissariat, The second chapter is an attempt to relate the developme~t of the Reichskonnnissariat, speculating on the reasons for its institu- tion and its objectives. In addition, this chapter sketches the organization of the Reichskonnnissariat. Chapter three deals with the personalities arid the involvements of the most prominent of- ficials associated with the Reichskornm.issariat. The fourth chap- ter describes the significant relationships between the Reichs- konnnissariat and the leading Dutch civil servants and also with the leaders of the Dutch National Socialist Pa~y (NSB). The 2. Dr. Louis de Jong, prominent Dutch historian in occupa- tional history, expresses a similar sentiment in the foreword of The Netherlands under German Occupation 1940-1945, by Werner Warmbrunn. (See Bibliography) V fifth chapter is concerned with the relationships between the Reichskommissariat and the highest Nazi leaders in Berlin. The final chapter presents some of the conclusions reached through this study. The principal and unpublished sources used for this study are located at the State Institute of War Documentation3 in Am- sterdam, Holland. This Institute was created in 1945, and has since accumulated a large collection of documents pertaining to the Second World War in general, and the involvements of the Netherlands in this event in particular. Few studies on the German occupation in the Netherlands are written in or translated into English. One of the most reliable works on this topic in English is the recently (1963) published book The Dutch under German Occupation by the American scholar, Werner Warmbrunn. Many of the English translations of titles and terms in this study are borrowed from the source just men- tioned. One of these titles is High Commissioner (Reichskom- mis.sar), which other English works usually have translated as Reich Commissioner. Foreign terms have been underlined in this study. However, frequently used .terms such as Reichskommissiat, Fuehrer-referring to Adolf Hitler, and the Reich4 are considered 3. The Dutch name of this Institute is Het Ri.jksinstituut Oorlogsdocumentatie. It operates under the auspices of the Dutch governmental Department of Education, Arts, and Sciences. In this study the Institute is hereafter referred to as R.v.O. 4. The term Reich literally translated as Empire, is used throughout this thesis in reference to the socalled Third Reich or Nazi controlled Germany. vi so familiar in this thesis that they will hereafter no longer be underlined. The reader will find that, contrary to scholarly practice, often the initials rather than the first name of per- sons are used in this study. This is usually the case with citizens of the Netherlands, where the practice of using initials instead of full names prevails. Translations of direct quotations are by the author, unless the source is in English, which is in- dicated by the footnote reference. I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Louis de Jong, Director of the State Institute of War