In 1932, the National Socialist Movement (NSB) was founded. The leader of the movement was Anton Mussert. The party program mainly consisted of fascist points and functioned as a collaboration party during the German occupation. The NSB would remain active until the end of the Second World War.
Principles of the NSB
The NSB did not include itself among the other parliamentary parties and always talked about a movement. This movement had a program with many fascist principles, such as a strong government, no individualistic suffrage and everything is in the service of the homeland. Initially, the NSB had no anti-Semitic or racist principles, but after the rapid rise of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, the NSB increasingly sided with the NSDAP in Germany.
Early years of the NSB
After its founding in 1932, the NSB’s support grew rapidly. The NSB was a popular movement, especially among civil servants, farmers and non-believers. Despite this, the movement has never performed well in parliamentary elections. In 1935, 8% of the votes were won, which immediately became the parliamentary highlight for the NSB. From the early days, the NSB also had a party weekly, Volk en Vaderland, in which ideas and philosophies were spread among the population. Civil servants were no longer allowed to be or become members of the NSB at the end of 1933. In these early years, even Jews were members of the NSB, and in some places they even founded the local NSB. The NSB also had a uniformed branch, the Resilience Department (WA), which regularly marched through various places.
Declining popularity
In the years before the Second World War, the popularity of the NSB declined considerably. This was mainly caused by the link that people made with the emerging danger of Nazi Germany. The world looked increasingly threatening due to the rise of the National Socialists in Germany. In these years before the Second World War, the NSB increasingly sided with Germany and also began to take anti-Semitic positions. Mussert also declared his solidarity with Benito Mussolini’s Italy, which invaded Ethiopia in 1935.
The war years
Soon after the outbreak of the Second World War, the NSB sided with the German occupier. In 1941, the NSB became the only legal political party allowed to exist in the Netherlands. No matter how Mussert tried, the NSB could not gain much of a foothold with the Germans. They were given little power and often had to make do with low-skilled jobs. In fact, the NSB members were no more than errand boys for the occupying forces.
After the war
After the liberation by the Allies, many NSB members took the plunge and fled abroad. However, many traitors were still able to be caught. Hundreds of thousands of NSB members were placed in internment camps. Jews stayed in these camps during the Second World War. The houses of the NSB members were massively looted by the angry crowd. The internment camps were soon closed down again, because it was difficult to accommodate and care for the large flow of NSB members. Anton Mussert was sentenced to death and the NSB was banned.