Spirit of Resistance : Dutch Clandestine Literature During the Nazi Occupation

T HE GERMAN INVASION OF THE NETHERLANDS on 10 May 1940 was not only a tragedy for the Dutch people; it was also a tragedy for Dutch literature. In just a few weeks the intellectual leaders of an entire generation would disappear. In the chaos of the battle of Rotterdam, Doeke Zijlstra, editor-in-chief of the publishing house Nijgh & Van Ditmar, was killed by a stray bullet. Publisher Robert Leopold, who feared German revenge for his publication of Hermann Rauschning’s critical work Gespräche mit Hitler (Conversations with Hitler, 1939), shot himself. The promising Jewish writer Jacob Hiegentlich took poison and died. The young poet Tom de Bruin was accidentally shot by a nervous Dutch sentry who mistook him for a German parachutist. Jo Otten, author of neo-Romantic prose, died from a stray bomb during the assault on The Hague. Hendrik Marsman, the most celebrated Dutch poet of his time, tried to escape but the ship that would have taken him to England exploded and he drowned. By then two of the most prominent essayists, Edgar du Perron and Mennoter Braak, had already died; du Perron collapsed from a heart attack during the bombardment of an airport near his home, and Mennoter Braak committed suicide upon the news of the Dutch surrender to the Germans. What might seem to be the final act of a Greek tragedy was only the beginning. During the occupation at least 770 men and women in the underground publishing movement would lose their lives. The first book to offer a complete story of the extraordinary proliferation of Dutch clandestine literature under the Nazi occupation.Clandestine literature was published in all countries under Nazi occupation, but nowhere else did it flourish as it did in the Netherlands. This raises important questions: What was the content of this literature? What were the risks of writing, printing, selling, and buying it? And why the Netherlands? Traditionally, the combative Dutch'spirit of resistance'has been cited, a reaction not only to German oppression but to German propaganda: while the Germans hoped to build bonds with their'Germanic'Dutch'brothers,'clandestine literature insisted on their incompatibility. However, when reading clandestine literature, one should not forget that this'spirit of resistance'came rather late and did not prevent the transportation of seventy-three percent of the Netherlands'Jewish population to Nazi death camps -- the largest percentage in Western Europe. The Dutch case is complex: while the country proved to be remarkably resistant to Nazi propaganda, little was done to prevent the actual execution of Nazi policies. The complete story of Dutch clandestine literature therefore combines resistance and complicity, victory and defeat, pride and shame. Jeroen Dewulf is Queen Beatrix Professor of Dutch Studies in the Department of German at the University of California, Berkeley.

Clandestine literature was published in all countries under Nazi occupation, but nowhere else did it flourish as it did in the Netherlands. This raises important questions: What was the content of this literature? What were the risks of writing, printing, selling, and buying it? And why the Netherlands? Traditionally, the combative Dutch spirit of resistance has been cited, a reaction not only to German oppression but to German propaganda: while the Germans hoped to build bonds with their Germanic Dutch brothers, clandestine literature insisted on their incompatibility. However, when reading clandestine literature, one should not forget that this spirit of resistance came rather late and did not prevent the transportation of seventy-three percent of the Netherlands' Jewish population to Nazi death camps - the largest percentage in Western Europe. The Dutch case is complex: while the country proved to be remarkably resistant to Nazi propaganda, little was done to prevent the actual execution of Nazi policies. The complete story of Dutch clandestine literature therefore combines resistance and complicity, victory and defeat, pride and shame. Jeroen Dewulf is Queen Beatrix Professor of Dutch Studies in the Department of German at the University of California, Berkeley.

Clandestine literature was published in all Nazi-occupied countries, but nowhere else did it flourish as it did in the Netherlands. This raises important questions: What was the content of this literature? What were the risks of writing, printing, selling, and buying it? And why the Netherlands? In all its complexity, clandestine literature offers a unique perspective on Dutch society under German occupation and on the postwar debates about collaboration, accommodation, and excessive victimization. This study is the first to offer a complete story of Dutch clandestine literature, a story combining resistance and complicity, victory and defeat, pride and shame.