Furthermore, they became administrators in nazified organizations and commercial undertakings, which gave them certain power in Holland; and they behaved like cowardly Nazi lackeys.
Mr. Rost von Tonningen, for instance, used millions of Dutch guilders to finance the war against Russia in order to fight against Bolshevism as he called it. Finally, in December 1942, Seyss-Inquart declared the Nazi Party to be the representative of the political life of Holland. If it had not been so tragic, one might have laughed at it. Mussert was then appointed as the Leader of Holland. I must add that the Nazi Party had only a shadow existence from the political point of view, with the single but important exception that these people had occasionally the opportunity to deal with matters of personnel. I should also add that sometimes they turned the heads of young Dutchmen and persuaded several thousands of them to enter the SS formations; and during the last years it became even worse. Then they even went so far as to put young boys into the SS without their parents’ consent. They even forced minors from correctional institutions into the SS. Sometimes—I know of cases myself—young boys who for certain reasons were at loggerheads with their parents, were taken into the SS. To realize the harm done you must, as I have sometimes done, go and speak to these children who are now in camps in Holland. You will then see what a monstrous crime has been committed against these young people.
M. FAURE: Am I to understand that all these methods employed by the Germans were intended to achieve the nazification of Holland and that if there were, as you have indicated, several varying tendencies among the Germans, these tendencies differed only as to the means to be employed and not in regard to the purpose of Germanization?
VORRINK: The actual nazification of Holland extended to practically all spheres of our national life. They tried in every domain to introduce the Leadership Principle. I would like to point out, for instance, that contrary to our expectations, they did not ban the Socialist Trade Unions but just tried to employ them. They merely sent a Nazi commissioner who told the people, “The era of democracy is past, just go on working under the leadership of the commissioner and you can still help the workers. It is not necessary to change anything.” They even tried that with the Dutch political parties.
As President of the Socialist Democratic Workers’ Party of Holland, I had a long conversation with Rost von Tonningen, who personally told me that it was a pity that the good cultural work done to educate the workers should cease. We both wanted socialism and all we had to do was to work together calmly. I denied that at the time of that conversation. I told him that for us democracy was not a question of opportunism but a part of our ideology and that we were not prepared to betray our convictions and our principles.
They tried to keep the workers in their organizations; but slowly the workers, thousands and tens of thousands of them, left their organizations. When finally the National Labor Front was created, with the Catholic and Christian Trade Unions, there certainly was an organization but no longer any members.
M. FAURE: Can you state with accuracy whether in your country persecutions against the Jews were started?
VORRINK: One of the worst chapters of our sufferings in Holland was the persecution of the Jews. You may know that we in Holland, and especially in Amsterdam, had a strong Jewish minority. These Jews took a very active part in the public and cultural life of Holland, and one can say there was no anti-Semitism in Holland.
When the Germans first came to Holland, they promised us that they would not harm the Jews at all. Nevertheless, even in the first weeks there was a wave of suicides. In the following months the measures against the Jews started. The professors in the universities were forced to resign. The president of the highest court in Holland was dismissed. Then the Jews had to present themselves for registration, and then came the time when the Jews were deported in great numbers.
I am proud to say that the Dutch population did not suffer this without protesting. The Dutch students went on strike when their Jewish professors were driven out, and the workers of Amsterdam went on strike for several days when the persecution of the Jews started. But one has to have seen this with one’s own eyes, as I have, to know what a barbaric system this National Socialism was.