Start, Part 2
To recapitulate: these are personal recollections. They do not, in particular, allow any comparison with the experience of people who were persecuted or lost relatives. Although some of my experiences were unpleasant, I was lucky. But on the other hand: the vast majority of Dutch were lucky too, so in a way my story may be more generally applicable. For an understanding of the mood and mindset of the Dutch pre-war generation, some major differences from the present should be pointed out, so here is more background information. Some of the elements in this background found a parallel in other countries, some were typically Dutch.
Economy
The Netherlands might be a small country, it was an important colonial power then, as the entire Indonesian archipel was part of the realm. Millions of people with hundreds of languages living on zillions of islands. Quite indefensible, of course, in wartime. This colonial asset was a major factor in the Dutch economy, resulting in a leading international trading position in products like tea, coffee, tobacco and oil. Light industry and services had begun to rival agriculture in economic importance and there was a large and modern merchant fleet, a well-developed road network and an exemplary rail network. The Great Depression had caused great damage, particularly because politicians categorically refused to ditch the gold standard, but nevertheless things had started to improve in 1937 and we were definitely not a poor country. Worldwide, economies were still primarily coal-driven, coal being the main energy source for heating, generation of electricity and gas and as a basic material for the chemical industry. There were – and are – large coal deposits in The Netherlands. The vast deposits of natural gas had not yet been discovered.
Society
In several ways, pre-war society in The Netherlands would be totally foreign to the present generation.
"Authority" was a powerful influence, even if it is now evident that the Authorities were often authoritarian rather
than authoritative… Statements by the clergy, politicians, local officials and teachers tended to become gospel.
There was a much greater difference in life-style between cities and the country than now. Cities like The Hague (the centre of government) were pretty modern, villages could be quite backward – no water closets but "thunderboxes" and cesspits, pumps rather than water mains, many unpaved roads. Because there was no TV and even a radio was not universally present in the home, whole areas spoke forms of Dutch that were almost incomprehensible to Dutchmen not indigenous to that area. And I'm NOT talking of Frisian, which is a language of its own still spoken by the Frisians (the people, not the cattle…)!
Social divisions were marked. From the bottom up: farmers and blue-collar workers (the men of these two categories wore caps, touching their hand to its peak in greeting, men in the next higher categories wore hats and lifted these in greeting), white-collar workers and bourgeois like owners of the better shops, professionals like lawyers and doctors, the élite like professors, bankers and top positions in government, and finally "old money" and captains of industry. It was possible, but not always easy, to move up.
Opinions
What was most pronounced was the division of society into religious groups. There were Catholics, a wide variety of Protestant churches all agreeing to disagree with all others and also non-denominational "mild Christians" and humanists. In certain communities, you would be in deep trouble if you were a Catholic and were "seeing" a Protestant girl – or vice versa. In mixed communities, there would be a Catholic baker and a Protestant baker – I was amazed to see that custom survive in a Dutch village as late as 1968. This division meant that people often led segregated lives: there were Catholic, Protestant (often of various denominations) and secular schools and clubs. It also meant a Catholic, two different Protestant and one "secular" radio broadcasting organizations, with an additional "Socialist" broadcasting organization thrown in for good measure for the heathens… This division along religious lines almost automatically determined what you were going to vote. There were 2 Catholic parties, at least 3 Protestant parties, a conservative party which (to totally confuse modern Americans!) was called the Liberal Party, a Socialist Party and a collection of weirdos such as anarchists and a variety of Marxists. Plus, starting in the Thirties, a Fascistoid party called National Socialist Movement or NSB. The NSB attracted many voters in one election, to lose most of them in the next.
These differences tended to become less marked during the war, but soon afterwards, they reappeared to decline only from the Sixties onwards.
And of course there were tiny minorities like Buddhists and Muslims from Indonesia, plus a larger minority – the Jews. I knew several Jewish families in The Hague, a doctor, a psychiatrist, a dentist and several artists, for instance. The only thing in which they appeared to be different was that they somehow had Saturday for a Sunday, quite puzzling to a kid.
As an aside, here is another nice moral puzzle. One major Protestant denomination held the view that "Thou shalt obey the government God hath willed should rule thee". Most of these people automatically voted for the "Anti-Revolutionary Party". What to do when that government turns out to be immoral? During the war, I several times heard adults struggling with that and discussing it, with tempers running high.
Politics
Then as now, Dutch politicians have an irritating tendency to evangelise, in the firm conviction that the nation is a paragon of moral rectitude. When you read them now, their statements are seen to be sanctimonious prattle, reeking of righteousness – and excuse my French.
Pacifism was popular in the Netherlands, as it was in many European countries. If France (the only nation able to do so) had justifiably sent troops into the demilitarised Rhineland when Hitler re-occupied that area militarily (1936), it is highly likely that the German Army would have deposed the dictator.
But the Dutch had another powerful deterrent up their sleeve: they repeatedly and emphatically declared that the nation was "strictly neutral". That was firmly believed to keep any other nation from attacking us, and when it did not work, most Dutch (including the Queen) were absolutely dumbfounded. Even in 1939, the great majority of Dutch people were totally convinced that war would not start – when the Soviet Union and Germany concluded the Ribbentrop Pact there was optimism as "war is now surely unlikely". But even if a conflict would break out, we would be certainly exempt, protected by our strict neutrality…
The really serious threat, most people believed, was the Soviet Union and communism, not National Socialism, especially because of Stalin's Great Terror in the mid-Thirties. That is why the National Socialists had a certain appeal: they declared themselves staunch enemies of communism. Which required some serious ideological conjuring by the communists when Hitler and Stalin became friendly from 1939 to mid-1941…
END, Part 2