Anton Mussert and the Dutch Nazi Party

As to be expected, there was one group of Dutchmen who were actually happy with the capitulation. These were members of the National-Socialistische Beweging der Nederland: or the NSB (for short), the Dutch Nazi party. Their day had come....or had it? The head of the NSB was Anton Mussert, a one-time civil engineer from Utrecht. Initially, he modeled his Dutch movement much more along the lines of Mussolini's Italian fascist party and less on those of Hitler's party.

Ad Mussert in gevangenis Scheveningen

Although undemocratic in every respect, the NSB did not have anti-Semitism as a core tenet. At least, not in the beginning. Some Dutch Jews actually became NSB members. However, as Nazi Germany became more powerful in the late 1930's, Mussert found himself under ever more pressure from Hitler to make the NSB conform to the German model. By 1940 Dutch Nazi anti-Semitism had become as vitriolic as the German Nazi variety. With the establishment of German power in Holland, Mussert and his party-members thought that country was now theirs. Mussert wanted Hitler to install him the leader of the new Netherlands, such as the Fuehrer had done by putting Quisling in charge of occupied Norway. Two major obstacles lay in the way of Mussert achieving his dream. Among Hitler, Seyss-Inquart, and other German notables, the perception was Anton Mussert was a total mediocrity, a jerk...if one may so phrase it. The other obstacle, and the more formidable one, was the Nazi wish to eventually annex Holland and make it make part of greater Germany. An independent Holland--even one run by a kow-towing Anton Mussert was not an acceptable alternative.

Mussert may have been a rabid fascist, a jerk, but he was in his own peculiar way an ardent Dutch patriot. He found the idea of Holland becoming an actual part of Germany an anathema. But other Dutch Nazis (e.g., Rust van Tonnigen), far more radical than Mussert, would have liked nothing more than for Holland to become part of the Dritte Reich. Although the Germans never did take too seriously Mussert or his Dutch Nazis, the Germans nevertheless saw certain practical advantages in humoring them. Dutch Nazis could be ever increasingly placed in the Dutch mayor and police chief posts thus ensuring that the German objectives could be more smoothly achieved in the occupied country. After the Germans had invaded Russia, Mussert managed to convince some of his minions to volunteer and go and fight the Bolsheviks on the East Front. In gratitude, Hitler permitted Mussert to call himself De Leider, leader in Dutch for Führer, but which means "unfortunately" in German and it made for a non-ending source of amusement to the German Nazis.