oa Spijtoptant Loe de Jong

Contrite Loe de Jong. Media censorship and the Committee of Action against Neo-Fascism (London 1944)

On 10 June 1944 seven signatories issued a pamphlet accusing the Dutch government in exile of secretly preparing an authoritarian regime immediately to follow the German occupation. The members of this Committee of Action against Neo-Fascism belonged to the circle of Radio Orange, the Dutch broadcast organization based in London during the Second World War. The protesters were silenced by the Dutch government’s media censorship. Six of them withdrew their allegations hesitantly; but only Loe de Jong decided actively to support the government in restoring its tarnished reputation. This article traces his change of mind and corrective actions. De Jong later became the historian who dominated the historiography of the German occupation 1940-45 in his mother country. Smits explains how the scholar evaluated his previous conduct. He shows that De Jong did not present a genuine, impartial description of this incident in full detail. The historian neglected to mention that the Committee had indeed challenged the government in exile by arguing that that secret decision-making on the Dutch postwar democratic system was not a legitimate task.