oa Journalisten aan de frontlinies

Journalists on the frontlines. Dutch war reporting during the Second World War

News from the battlefields reached the Dutch public in the Second World War from various sources: official statements by the military, rumours, and dispatches by correspondents. While sometimes based on eyewitness accounts, difficulty getting close to the frontline as well as censorship meant these reports were often unreliable. Journalists reporting on the German side were conscripted into the PK (Propaganda Kompagnie) and had to fight alongside other troops. Authorities on both sides were keen to ensure that war reporting did not undermine the morale of ‘their boys’ or of those back home, so successes were exaggerated and setbacks downplayed. Both sides wanted ‘issue ownership’ of ‘brave’ Dutch soldiers. This research investigates instances when nazified and anti-nazi publications reacted to each other’s reporting, in particular in September 1944 when allied forces moved ever closer to liberating the Netherlands but then got stuck at Arnhem, with the frontline running down the middle of the country.