Part-1: Overview

Part-2: The Hague and Scheveningen

Part-3: Rotterdam and its Harbour

Part-4: Zeeland, Brabant and Limburg

Part-5: Arnhem, Nijmegen, Deventer, Zutphen, Groningen & Betuwe

PART-2: The Hague and Scheveningen
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In this part-2 we focus on the city of The Hague (Den Haag in Dutch) and its neighboring coastal village Scheveningen. For centuries The Hague has been and still is the residence of the Dutch government, but it is not the capital of the country which is Amsterdam. On 29 May 1940, just two weeks after the Dutch captulation, The Hague became the HQ of German rule over the Netherlands under the Leadership of Reichscommissar Seyss Inquart. He took residence at the Clingendaal estate. After the war he was condemned to death during the Neurenberg trials. The Hague suffered badly from the spoils of war. Two major events can be named: 1. The destruction of a large part of the city in order to become a fortification as part of the AtlantikWall that stretched from the North of France to Norway. This defence line was 2685 km long. 2. The accidental bombing of the Bezuidenhout quarters by the RAF. 1. The Atlantikwall was built with the aim to halt a potential invasion by the allied forces. The section in The Hague also had as purpose to protect the residence of Seys Inquart that lied not far from the Dutch coast. In december 1941 the Germans started with the construction of the fortifications. However, the main part of the work was done in the autumn a year later. Approximately 138.000 people, nearly a third of the The Hague population, were forced to leave their homes which were destined to be demolished in order to construct a 27 meter wide tank ditch, bunkers and many other fortifications. Thousands of homes, three churches, a school and a hospital were demolished. Large parts of the The Hague's woods were chopped down to the ground. Most refugees were housed in other parts of The Hagua and surrounding towns and villages. About 1000 Scheveningers found residence in De Achterhoek, in the East of the country near the German border. Others spent the rest of the war in Eelde, Zuid-Laren, Culemborg and Ermelo. Dutch firms collaborated with the Germans to construct the AtlantikWall. We see many residents leaving their homes with their most important belongings. From 1943 onwards nearly all men in the age group of 17 to 40 were called up to perform compulsary labour duties in Germany, the so called Arbeidseinsatz. Soon after the German surrender on 4th of May 1945 these forced labourers started to return home. It involved approximately 270.000 men. Most of them were welcomed with open arms as seen here. However, not all experienced a warm welcome and felt that some people were treating them as collaborators and looked at with disrespect and mistrust. 2. The second major catastrophy for The Hague was the accidental bombing of the Bezuidenhout quarters. On the 3rd of March 1945, just two months before the war ended, 61 bombers (49 Mitchels and 12 Bostons) of the RAF took off from Melsbroek near Brussel and from Vitry-en-Artois in liberated Northern-France to bomb German V2 rocket launch pads in the woods of The Hague. However, due to a navigation miscalculation they dropped their bombs by mistake on this residential area. In total 550 residents died and 350 were wounded. Thousands became homeless. Many homes were lost because of the inexperience of the local firebrigade with putting out home fires of this magnitude. This statue of Juliana van Stolberg and her 5 sons, erected in 1930 can still be seen at the Koningin Marialaan. As already mentioned, Scheveningen was converted by the Germans into a fortress. The entire beach was mined and around the famous Kurhaus many concrete bunkers were constructed. This footage of the Kurhaus is very rare and will probably bring back dear memories to those who recall what the Gevers Deynoot plein and the street leading to the beach (with on the right the Sea aquarium) was like before the massive re-development changes in the 1960s. Scheveningen's prison is notorious for its roles during and after WW-II. During WW-II it served as prison for many captured Dutch resistance fighters, Engelandvaarders and secret agents. It was nick named the "Oranje hotel". In total in retained approximately 25.000 prisoners. Many of these prisoners did not survive as they were executed in the dunes of the nearby Waalsdorper vlakte. Immediately after the war the prison's inhabitants changed to retain high ranking German collaborators. It was here that people like NSB leader Anton Mussert, NSB-ers Robert van Genechten, Max Blokzijl en Carel Huygen as well as the Hague's NSB mayor Harmen Westra were held, awaiting their execution or sentencing. Shortly after the war Scheveningen started with the clearing of the mined beaches and the destruction of the bunkers and other fortifications. For the first time in 5 years people could start to spend nice days on the beach again.

PART-3: Rotterdam and its Harbour
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In contrast to Rotterdam's city center, Europe's largest port had fallen into German hands with limited damage. The shipyards also suffered virtually no damage and were soon visited by German specialists. Most shipyard managers anticipated that the Germans would win the war and expeditiously concluded contracts with them. These contracts included building and converting ships and dismantling Dutch naval vessels that had not been able to escape to England. All this was done at German expense. Also important suppliers to the yards decided to side with the German forces. Rotterdam's harbour in fact became a German naval base. Germany would pay all bills properly in the coming years and stated they would honour the contracts. However, the Netherlands had to pay occupation tax to the Germans, so in effect the Dutch taxpayer indirectly paid for the military and maritime acquisitions of the occupier. During the course of the war, Rotterdam and the region functioned as an ore transshipment port for the German arms industry in the Ruhr area, as a base for the Kriegsmarine and especially as a supplier of warships. More than 800 ships were built in the Netherlands on German behalf. Furthermore, another 2,000 existing ships were converted for war purposes. Rotterdam made a significant contribution to this. In the first years of the war, Rotterdam's economy revived. Good money was made from the occupier. Especially by the shipyards, which were not just in survival mode. As early as in October 1941 the RAF started bombing the harbour. In the second half of the occupation period, Rotterdam more intensively started to pay the tolls for cooperating with the occupying forces. as it increasingly became the target of Allied bombings, resulting in civilian casualties and damage to residential areas. In that respect the so called "Forgotten bombing" should be mentioned, whereby on 31 maart 1943 allied American bombers left Britain to bomb Rotterdam's harbour. Similar to the accidental bombing of The Hague's Bezuidenhout quarters, the American airforce misjudged the bombing target and in stead dropped 70 heavy bombs on the Bospolder-Tussendijken quarters in West Rotterdam, killing 325 people and destroying many homes. The work on the shipyards and in the port became increasingly risky and was also paid less. Working hours were extended and the threat of being put to work in Germany continued to hang over the workers' heads. The port of Rotterdam increasingly became a fortress due to German defenses, which limited the freedom of movement of the residents. In addition, more and more public buildings such as schools and hospitals were requisitioned and put into use by the occupying forces. From September 1944, as the allies were starting to approach, there were tactical air raids by Spitfires and Typhoon fighter-bombers. These were aimed, among other things, at ship targets and launchers for V-weapons in Vlaardingen, Pernis and Hoek van Holland. A number of bombings were spectacular successes, but there were also large-scale bombings with little effect. When the Allies continued to advance towards the Netherlands in 1944, the Germans in Rotterdam and the surrounding area began to requisition material and transport it to the east. This happened on such a large scale that it could safely be called robbery. Later that year, much of the port was destroyed by the Germans to prevent the Allies from using the facilities. The destruction seen in this film is actually the collective result of the allied attacks and the German sabottage as well as merchant ships having been taken out of service at the beginning of the war and subsequently left to rust. Some damage was also caused by small scale sabotage by the Dutch resistance during the war, but its impact was insignificant. Rotterdam harbour's WW-II history ends on May 5, 1945 when the first English ships with food moored at the Lloydkade. After the war the Dutch proactively started to restore the damage of the Rotterdam harbour. It took less than 5 years before the harbour was back to its pre-war strength and efficiency. After afore mentioned bombing on 14th of May 1940, the demolition of the center was a temporary low point for Rotterdam, which found itself in a deep economic dip due to the absence of the pre war merchant navy and passenger ships. On top of the already high unemployment, there were now 80,000 homeless people and many hundreds of destroyed businesses. About two years later Rotterdam's economy started to flourish again. These images give an idea of what Rotterdam looked like during the war as seen from the water. Here on the right in the distance you can see the famous Witte Huis, one of Rotterdam's first high rise buildings that survived the bombing. This part-3 ends with rare, stunningly enhanced and colorized footage of one of Rotterdam's destroyed stations: Delftsche Poort.

PART-4: Zeeland, Brabant and Limburg
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Zeeland is a province in the South West of The Netherlands consisting of many large islands. There is a lot to tell about what happened in Zeeland during the war, but that will be a topic for another series about WW-II. Main towns like Middelburg, Vlissingen and Breskens were severy damaged and hardly inhabitable anymore After the Dutch government's capitulation on 15 May 1940, fighting still continued in the Dutch province of Zeeland. Some French troops were still present there and trying to halt the German onslaught. After Antwerp was liberated in early September 1944, the German authorities also decided to carry out large-scale inundations in nearby Zeeland. Flooding large areas was aimed at trying to hinder and halt the advancing allies. This led to mass evacuations: on the island of Schouwen-Duiveland, as many as three-quarters of the population had to leave their homes. There was a lot of resistance, especially among farmers especially because they knew that the salt sea water would make the soil infertile. In the province of Zeeland, more than 43,000 hectares of land was flooded as a result of German inundations. However, not only the Germans were responsible for the floading of Zeeland but also the allies. On 3 October 1944 the RAF bombed the dykes around Walcheren from three directions thus floading the entire region. Twice a day eb and flood had free game to overflow and retract from the island thus rapidly raising the groundwater level. It did contribute to the withdrawal of the Germans to higher ground. The many Dutch inhabitants had hardly anywhere to go and many fled to higher ground in cities like Middelburg. Later on, after Walcheren was captured, the allies forced the local population to evacuate. About half of them (27.000 in all) left. It took until 1946 before all dykes were repaired. The Zeelanders suffered a lot and were attacked several times by both German and Allied inundations. The swirling seawater that flowed through the deliberately broken dikes caused a large flow of refugees that continued until after the liberation of the Netherlands. Travelling too and from Zeeland was difficult because important bridges like the Moerdijkbrug were partially destroyed as seen earlier. The island of Tholen was flooded too, as can be seen here. The two other Southern provinces of the Netherlands, Noord Brabant and Limburg suffered badly too as these pictures will show. The South of the Netherlands was captured by the allies by late autumn 1944. The rest of the country had to wait until the next spring and endured a terrible famine, the Hongerwinter, as shown in detail in one of my other videos. Being a thrifty and entrepreneurial country, the Netherlands soon started to restore the war damage. To finish this part-4 of my series, here are some glimpses of these activities. This series will be extended with one or two more episodes.

PART-5: Arnhem and Nijmegen
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In this fifth and final episode of this series we take a look at the devastations of the Eastern part of the Netherlands towards the end of WW-II.

Arnhem was the well know scene of Operation Market garden, the failed attempt by the allies to capture the Rhine bridge. The 700 year old capital of the Dutch province of Gelderland was involved in a number of battles and was robbed to the bone by the Germans.Near Arnhem two Bailey emergency bridges were constructed to re-enable traffic.

On 22 September 1944 Nijmegen suffered a severe bombardement by the allied forces, especially by the Americans. Till this day the jury is still out whether this was an accidental bombardement due to a navigation mistake or deliberate. 800 people were killed. Arnhem was also hit by this raid as well as Enschede. These bombers were on their way back from an aborted mission to Gotha in Germany and just looked for convenient targets to get rid of their bombs.

Not far from Arnhem and Nijmegen to the West lies the Betuwe. This very fertile area between the three Dutch main rivers is well known for its fruit growers. Annually heaps of tourist used to flock to the Betuwe in May to see the beautiful blossoms on these trees. After the war hardly anything Was left. All that remained was a barren landscape as can be seen here around the town of Tiel.

Many areas became totally unusable because of the millions of deployed land mines. Clearing the mines is a dangerous job and caused many fatalities.Other parts in the east of the Netherlands did not escape from the war onslaught either. Zutphen and Deventer were severely damaged.
The city of Groningen in the North East of the country did not escape from the spoils of war either.

If you have watched all five episodes in this series it should become apparent how severely The Netherlands suffered from the German occupation. The once splended Dutch harbours were transformed into heaps of rubble and twisted steel.
Before the war the country had one of the most modern electrified railway networks in the world that served all Dutch cities, towns and villages.
At the end of the war this rail network had become almost totally unusable. On their retreat the Germans destroyed many trains and also stole a large portion of the rolling stock.

Before the war the railways posessed 30000 carriages and nearly 900 engines. This graph shows how much of that was left. Families used to consume 3000 calories per head. This fell back to on average only 400 calories and can be directly linked to the great famine in the winter of 1944/1945.

Large areas of fertile land in Zeeland and the Wieringermeer were innundated by both the Germans and bombings by the allies as shown in earlier episodes. It would take many years before the soiled could be used again to produce food.

The reputation of the Dutch cattle and meat produce stood at a very high level.
The export of dairy products was one of the pillars of the Dutch economy. It would take years before the poultry production would reach its pre-war levels. A graph shows the effects of the war on these sectors.

The production of coal before the war was sufficient to support the entire country but dropped to around 25% causing the Dutch to rely largely on coal supplies by the allies.

To sum up, the minority of the Dutch who supported the Germans when they entered the country in May 1940 soon learned that they had betted on the wrong horse. The initial smiles were soon wiped off their faces once they learned of the real intentions and objectives of the Germans. The economy fell flat on its face, 100.000 Jews never returned from the concentration camps and the country was plundered to the bone. Almost to the day the Dutch suffered 5 years of hardship, cruelty, death and destruction, poverty, abuse, oppression, suppression, plundering and even a terrible famine.

To those who have made ignorent comments under my video titled "Dutch Heroes, Collaborators and Traitors during WWII", suggesting that almost the whole country supported the German invaders, all that can be said is "shame on you!"
Watch that video and this series to better understand what really happened and to conclude that only a small percentage of the population really collaborated in an active manner. The remaining majority had no other choice than to make the best of the situation and to place oneself in survival mode.

On 13 March 1945 Queen Wilhelmina returned from het exile in London to make a tour through the liberated South of The Netherlands. She did not stay but went back to London some days later. Her definite return to the Netherlands was on the 2nd of May.
On 28 of June she was honored with a "welcome back" parade on the Dam in Amsterdam as seen here.
Gradually life in the Netherlands returned almost to how it used to be. On one thing everybody agreed after these terrible 5 years: "Never again"!

Source: Beeld En Geluid
Music: Trevor Kowalski

E-mail: ricksfilmrestoration@gmail.com

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