Anton Mussert | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader of theDutch People | |
| In office 13 December 1942 (1942-12-13) – 7 May 1945 (1945-05-07) Serving with Arthur Seyss-Inquart[a] | |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Leader of theNational Socialist Movement | |
| In office 14 December 1931 (1931-12-14) – 6 May 1945 (1945-05-06) | |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Anton Adriaan Mussert (1894-05-11)11 May 1894 Werkendam, Netherlands |
| Died | 7 May 1946(1946-05-07) (aged 51) Waalsdorpervlakte,The Hague, Netherlands |
| Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
| Political party | National Socialist Movement (from 1931) |
| Other political affiliations | Liberal State Party (1920s) |
| Spouse | Maria Witlam |
| Parents |
|
| Alma mater | Delft University of Technology(MEng) |
| Occupation | |
Anton Adriaan Mussert (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈɑntɔˈmʏsərt];[a] 11 May 1894 – 7 May 1946) was a Dutch politician who co-founded theNational Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) in 1931 and served as its leader until the party was banned in 1945. As such, he was the most prominent Dutch leader of the movement before and duringWorld War II. Mussertcollaborated with theGerman occupation government, but was granted little actual power and held thenominal title ofLeider van het Nederlandsche Volk ("Leader of the Dutch People") from 1942 onwards. In May 1945, as the warcame to an end in Europe, Mussert was captured and arrested byAllied forces. He was charged and convicted oftreason, and was executed in 1946.
Mussert was born on 11 May 1894 inWerkendam, in the northern part of the province ofNorth Brabant in the Netherlands.[1] From an early age he showed talent in technical matters and after graduating from school he chose to studycivil engineering at theDelft University of Technology. He married his aunt Maria Witlam, his mother's sister, in 1917 despite opposition from his mother. In the 1920s, he became active in several far right organisations, such as theDietsche Bond which advocated aGreater Netherlands includingFlanders (Dutch-speakingBelgium).
On 14 December 1931, Mussert,Cornelis van Geelkerken, and ten others founded theNational Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (Dutch:Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland), a Dutch counterpart to theNational Socialist German Workers' Party. In its early years, the NSB boasted that its membership included several hundred Jews,[2] until the German party directed a moreanti-Semitic course.
A 1933 demonstration inUtrecht attracted only 600 supporters. A year later, the NSB rallied 25,000 demonstrators in Amsterdam. The NSB received 300,000 votes in the 1935 parliamentary elections, almost 8% of the national vote.[3] In the 1937 election, it polled a little more than half as much. Thereafter, Mussert worked toward preventing resistance to a German invasion.
A state of siege was declared by the Dutch government in April 1940 after the foreign correspondent forThe New York Times, Vladimir Poliakov, reported that Mussert's followers were preparing to kidnapQueen Wilhelmina as part of a coup.
On 10 May, German troopsinvaded the Netherlands and Mussert was permitted to suppress all political parties other than the NSB.
Mussert was not appointed prime minister of the occupied nation. Instead, Austrian NaziArthur Seyss-Inquart was appointed as the Reichskommissar, while Berlin summoned Mussert to control his uncooperative countrymen. Mussert responded by working with theGestapo in stopping resistance to the German occupation. On 21 June 1940 Mussert agreed to have NSB members train with theSS-Standarte 'Westland'. On 11 September, Mussert instructedHenk Feldmeijer to organise theNederlandsche SS (Dutch SS) as a division of the NSB. Mussert had nothing to do with the raising of an all-Dutch volunteer SS unit, the SS-Freiwilligen-Legion Niederlande.[4] Regardless, thousands of Dutch citizens were arrested.
In February 1941, Mussert agreed to and oversaw the formation of the23rd SS VolunteerPanzer Grenadier DivisionNederland, which trained inHamburg. In November 1941, the formation was ordered to theEastern Front nearLeningrad, under the overall command ofArmy Group North. The division acquitted itself well alongside its German allies, but suffered large losses.
On 8 December 1941, the independent Dutch administration in theDutch East Indies declared war onJapan, the ally of Nazi Germany.[5] After theJapanese invasion and occupation and the subsequent internment of 100,000 Dutch civilians and 50,000 military personnel, Mussert requested a meeting with Hitler. On 13 December 1942, Hitler declared Mussert to be "Leider van het Nederlandse Volk" (Leader of the Dutch People).[6]
Having lost control of the Dutch SS and the military units that were serving in theWehrmacht to his Nazi masters, Mussert had his last meeting with Hitler in May 1943, where he was told that he would never have political control. Following the unsuccessfulOperation Market Garden in September 1944, which included a supporting strike by Dutch railway workers, the German authorities forbade food transport by rail, resulting in theHongerwinter of 1944/45 during which 18,000 died. Throughout the crisis, Mussert stayed silent for fear of losing what power he had left.[7] By the end of the war, 205,901 Dutch men and women had died. The Netherlands had the highest per capita death rate of all German-occupied countries inWestern Europe, 2.36%.[8] Another 30,000 died in the Dutch East Indies, either while fighting the Japanese or in camps as JapanesePOWs. Dutch civilians were held in those camps as well.[9]
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Upon the surrender of Germany, Mussert was arrested at the NSB office in The Hague on 7 May 1945. He was convicted ofhigh treason on 28 November after a two-day trial, and was sentenced to death on 12 December. He appealed toQueen Wilhelmina for clemency. She refused. On 7 May 1946, exactly one year after his arrest and four days before his 52nd birthday, Mussert was executed by a firing squad on theWaalsdorpervlakte, a site near The Hague, where hundreds of Dutch citizens had been killed by the Nazi regime.[10]
