oa ‘Op de grens van twee werelden’

‘At the border between two worlds’. Internationalism during the first year of German occupation

This article maps the propaganda concerning the Netherlands during the first months of German occupation. With its neutrality violated and military defeated, and its Queen and government in exile in England, the international standing of the Netherlands had collapsed. In a brochure published in early July 1940 statesman and former prime minister Hendrikus Colijn was one of the first to draw far-reaching conclusions from this new situation, encouraging his compatriots not only to accept German occupation, but also to cooperate with the country’s new masters. Analysing the many reactions to Colijn’s brochure, this article argues that it encouraged propagandists on each side of the conflict to confront the meaning of the war and the role the Netherlands ought to play in it.